Keeping Manipur on the boil
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: June 10, 2024 -

To anyone who has no inkling about its implications, the news reports of "Indian security forces successfully evacuating more than 200 people belonging to the Meetei/Meitei community from their villages in Jiribam district and moving them to a newly set up relief camp after violence broke out following the killing of a man allegedly by armed Kuki militants" may sound perfectly alright.

In fact, their heart might be swelling with pride, thinking that the Indian security forces have done the thing by acting swiftly to deescalate tension between the two communities, which have been at war since May 3 last year.

But the bitter truth is that this swift action of the Indian security forces to evacuate people from their villages whenever violence broke out has done more harm than any possible good one could think of.

The swift action of relocating the Meetei/Meitei from the Kuki-Chin dominated Churachandpur district, Kangpokpi district and the border town of Moreh in Tengnoupal district when the violence first started has today led to a situation where even their footprints have been erased.

With all the houses burnt down or flattened to the ground, there is no more sign of the Meetei/Meitei settlements existing in these places today.

Leaving the houses of the Meetei/Meitei abandoned after the occupants were shifted by the Indian security forces gave the perfect opportunity to Kuki-Chin militants and their armed supporters to ransack them and then claim that total segregation of the Meetei/Meitei and Kuki-Chin communities has been completed.

So, it seems Indian security forces are facilitating the same "ethnic cleansing" of the Meetei/Meetei from Jiribam as well by showing more eagerness in evacuating the panic-stricken people from their villages instead of facing the armed Kuki-Chin militants, who are running amok and burning down not just the abandoned houses but also police check posts and government office buildings.

Ironically, the swift action of the Indian security forces to evacuate Meetei/Meitei from the villages in Jiribam district and leaving their abandoned houses and properties at the mercy of armed Kuki-Chin militants has come just a day after the Government of Manipur issued an urgent directive to all the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of the districts to safeguard the-properties of Internally Displaced People (IDP).

Citing the directive given by a Supreme Court-appointed committee led by Justice Gita Mittal which called for focusing on formulating a specific policy for the protection of properties of IDP in Manipur, the directive issued by Land Resources joint secretary Yumnam Nelson on Thursday (June 6) had instructed the DCs to publicly announce the need for an inventory of landed properties owned by IDPs currently residing in relief camps or elsewhere.

As per this directive, the inventory has to be compiled and submitted in both excel sheet and hard copies by June 13, and a public notice in this regard has to be widely circulated through local newspapers, electronic & print media, and local cable TV networks, apart from uploading the same on the websites of district administration concerned to ensure broad visibility and compliance by treating it as top priority.

It is now obvious that what the Indian security forces are doing in Jiribam district is in total contrast to the mandate given the Supreme Court-appointed committee and the effort being made by the state government to safeguard and protect houses and properties of the conflict affected people.

Even as the government of India, more particularly, its home ministry, needs to answer why the Indian security forces are showing more interest in evacuating the people ratherthan putting up a fight against the armed Kuki-Chin militants, it seems a greater number of people are today convinced of the complicity of Indian security forces in perpetuating the violence to keep the tiny northeastern state of Manipur on the boil.

This, indeed, is a sad commentary on the military power in the world's largest democracy.