Killing two birds with one stone ?
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: November 15, 2023 -

COMING in the midst of an unprecedented ethnic conflict between the Meitei/Meetei and Kuki-Chin communities that has been raging for close to six and half months now, the notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday declaring seven "Meitei Extremist Organisations" and their affiliates as "unlawful associations" under section 4 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967) for a period of five years with effect from November 13, 2023 seems to have caused a bit of confusion among the people.

Signed by its Additional Secretary Piyush Goyal, the notification said that the declaration has been made in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967) as the Government of India is of the opinion that these organisations have been "engaging in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India; employing and engaging in armed means to achieve their aforesaid objectives; attacking and killing the security forces, the police and civilians in Manipur; indulging in acts of intimidation, extortion and looting of civilian population for collection of funds for their organisations; making contacts with sources abroad for influencing public opinion and for securing their assistance by way of arms and training for the purpose of achieving their secessionist objective, and maintaining camps in neighbouring countries for the purpose of sanctuaries, training and clandestine procurement of arms and ammunition."

It went on to say that if there is no immediate curb and control, these organisations will take the opportunity "to mobilise their cadres for escalating their secessionist, subversive, terrorist and violent activities; propagate anti-national activities in collusion with forces inimical to sovereignty and integrity of India; indulge in killings of civilians and targeting of the police and security force personnel; procure and induct illegal arms and ammunition from across the international border; and extort and collect huge funds from public for their unlawful activities".

There should be nothing confusing about the notification of the MHA declaring seven "Meitei Extremist Organisations" and their affiliates as "unlawful associations".

In fact, the notification is for extending the ban period of these alleged unlawful associations for another five years.

The last time the ministry had issued such a notification was on November 13, 2018.

So, following expiry of the 5-year ban period, the ministry has come up with a fresh notification for extending the ban by another five years.

As a matter of fact, the latest notification is no different from the last notification, whether in terms of its format and wordings.

The only visible different is that last time it was signed by Satyendra Garg, who was the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), then, and, of course, the dates have been changed accordingly.

Nonetheless, coming a ta time when an unprecedented ethnic battle between the Meitei/Meetei and Kuki-Chin communities has been raging for more than six months now, one can't help but to wonder whether the ministry is trying to send out a subtle message to both the "Meitei Extremist Organisations" and the Kuki militant groups.

While the security establishment had already flagged concern over the possibility of "Meitei Extremist Organisations" which are yet to accept peace deal with the government of India, helping the civilian groups in the valley in the current unrest, there has been growing demand for abrogation of the Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement signed with the Kuki militant groups for their alleged involvement in fuelling the current crisis.

Unlike this time, the ministry had never shown so much interest and enthusiasm in issuing a notification to declare the seven "Meitei Extremist Organisations", which are included not only in the list of 39 terrorist organisations banned by the Government of India under Section 35 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 as well as in the list of unlawful associations.

So, taking into account of the recent directive given to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for probing some Kuki militant groups under SoO pact as forces behind the current unrest, perhaps, the ministry is trying to kill two birds with one stone.