Internationalising the Kuki-Meitei conflict
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 11, 2023 -

ALONG the twisting the facts to suit their own narratives of portraying as victim of a "systematic ethnic cleansing" of the minority Christian community by the majority Hindu Meitei/Meetei community, how the leaders of Kuki-Chin organisations have been trying their best to further their cause by internationalising the present crisis in the northeastern state of Manipur is something that is well-known to most people by now.

From sending despatches to the President of USA and the Prime Minister of Israel seeking help and intervention to petitioning the United Nations, they had even succeeded in influencing the Parliament of European Union to adopt a resolution in connection with the violence in Manipur, which the Government of India had already denounced as undue interference in the "internal matter" of the country.

The Government of India had also rejected the recent comments made by a team of United Nations experts on the alleged "inadequate humanitarian response to the grave humanitarian situation in Manipur following the latest round of community conflict between the predominantly Hindu Meitei and the predominantly Christian Kuki ethnic communities."

Terming the comments of the UN experts, which were understandably made in response to an earlier petition made by the Kuki Chin leaders, as 'unwarranted, presumptive and misleading', the Government of India had asserted that the situation in the Northeast state was peaceful.

Of course, no one in Manipur or for that matter anyone in other parts of the country who have been closely studying the situation in the strife-torn state for the last four months would subscribe to describing the prevailing situation in Manipur as anything but peaceful, but all these show the strenuous effort being made by the Kuki-Chin leaders to internationalise the crisis in Manipur to further their cause even at the cost of exposing their own false narratives.

Given these precedents, it is unfathomable how the fertile minds of Kuki-Chin leaders conjured up with the idea of putting the blame on the Meitei/Meitei for the Pallel incident on September 8 by making a preponderous claim that it was orchestrated by the Meetei/Meetei to steal the attention of world leaders who are currently in the national capital New Delhi for the G20 Leaders' Summit.

Even though there were voice recordings which went viral where one supporter of the Kuki-Chin group was clearly heard telling the rest in the group to do something big before the G20 Summit, and the State Police Department had clarified that it was an exchange of firing between the security forces and the armed miscreants, all the Kuki-Chin organisations came up with what appeared to be a commonly drafted press statement claiming that it was a pre-planned attack on a Kuki village by armed Meitei/Meetei dressed in combat fatigue to draw the attention of the world leaders.

What these Kuki-Chin organisations and their leaders have overlooked is the fact that the Meetei/Meetei community have never ever made any attempt to internationalise the now over four-month long conflict in the state.

All they have ever done so far is to respond to the European Union Parliament and other international agencies for setting the record straight on the false claims made by the Kuki-Chin leaders.

The Meitei/Meetei community know that they are not going to gain anything from internationalising the issue and the solution to the present crisis is not going to come from anywhere but within.

As retired IAS officer and social activist, RK Nimai, who is one of our esteemed columnists, has rightly said, "For the Kuki-Chin, internationalising has an advantage as they ultimately hope for a Zalengam comprising areas from India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. For the Meitei they have only Manipur".