Misleading the House of Commons
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 23, 2023 -

AFTER the heated exchange of words that was witnessed between Khuraijam Athouba, who is not only the vice president of International Peace and Social Advancement (IPSA), but also the spokesperson of Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), which is spearheading the people's movement against narco-terrorism amidst the current conflict in Manipur and Wissam al-Saliby, who is the Geneva office director of World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) during a side event of the ongoing 54th session of United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva over the latter's attempt to propagate views of only side on the current crisis in Manipur, it is unfortunate thata British MP has committed the same blunder.

During a backbench business debate on freedom of religion and belief in the House of Commons, MP Jim Shannon of Democratic Unionist Party has described the ongoing violence in Manipur as a "silent attack on Christians in India".

Initiating the debate, MP Shannon, who is also the chair of an all-party parliamentary group for international freedom of religion or belief, asserted that the "The events in Manipur might be classed as originating in tribal or ethnic tensions, but the Manipur has silently been an attack on Christians in India.

It is striking that local police and state government sat by as arson destroyed the properties, homes and lives of minority and religious groups. The perpetrators of the violence are understood to be from Hindu extremist backgrounds, whereas the victims are predominantly Christians.

Some 230 churches were destroyed over a four-day period. Many perpetrators of the violence did not act in a random manner; their violence was deliberately targeted at Christians, and they wanted them to flee their lands".

Though the effort of the British MP to draw attention of his colleagues in the House of Commons towards an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that is besieging the tiny northeastern state of Manipur for close to five months now is appreciable, perpetuation of the false narrative of minority Christian Zo people (Kuki, Zomi, Hmar tribes) being prosecuted by the majority Hindu Meitei/ Meetei people in Manipur, which is far removed from reality, is really unfortunate.

By overlooking the events that do not fit the narrative of majority Hindu prosecuting the minority Christian, no one including MP Shannon and other international agencies, who have been fed with wrong information, is going to help in any way in finding a solution to the current humanitarian crisis in Manipur, which has so far claimed hundreds of precious human lives, valuable properties both private and public reduced to ashes and thousands of families on both side of the clash divide rendered homeless forcing them to seek refuge in the relief camps that have been set up across the length and breadth of the state.

Even if anyone wants to project the current crisis as Hindu-Christian conflict, then they should not lose sight of the fact that the violence first began from the Kuki -dominated border district of Churachandpur where the houses of Meitei/Meetei, their religious places including churches of those Meiteis/Meeteis professing Christian faith were burnt down before the communal violence fuelled by narco-terrorists spread to other areas dominated by Kuki people like Kangpokpi district and Moreh in Tengnoupal district, and the angry Meiteis in the valley retaliated.

Understanding this simple fact is crucial to any sincere effort towards finding a solution to the ongoing crisis in Manipur, which is not a religious conflict at all, howsoever, one may try to stretch his/her fertile imagination.

By the way, it would have been of greater help if the British MP had acknowledged and enlightened his colleagues in the House of Commons how the divisive policies of the British colonial rule in the 19th and 20th centuries had actually sown the seed of present conflict in Manipur before trying to preach anyone about religious tolerance.