Shielding the truth with lies and lies : Selling the wrong narrative
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 16, 2023 -

Obvious that many are not ready to sell the right narrative for reasons which are obvious to The Sangai Express.

Not the first time this is being said and this will not be the last either, but Union Home Minister Amit Shah also preferred to toe the doctored narrative that has been spelt out after Manipur went up in flames following the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023.

Call it a balacing act, for the foremost task before the Union Home Minister was to ensure that peace returns and since this was what the office of the Home Minister would have wanted, the man occupying this office obviously thought it more politically prudent to toe the line that the clash erupted after the Court’s directive that the State Government send the needed report or recommendation to the Centre to include the Meiteis in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Constitution of India.

This was the politician in Amit Shah speaking and as a man who came here to speak peace and reconciliation this did not come as too big a surprise to The Sangai Express.

But this should not mean that the ST for Meiteis demand is at the core of the ethnic clash.

No one in Manipur is a fool to lap up the desperate attempt made first by the All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur and then given further thrust by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) and backed by the Kuki Inpi, Manipur to give the ‘place of honour‘ to the ST for Meiteis demand.

Trouble started brewing long back, from the moment the State Government started razing to the ground hectares and hectares of poppy plantations (with more than 90 percent of such plantations being found in Kuki inhabited areas) under its War on Drugs campaign, the eviction drive at Reserved and Protected Forest in which many belonging to different communities were driven out, but which was met with violent reactions from people belonging to the Kuki community, best exemplified by the mass rally organised at Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Moreh after a settlement named B Songjal was driven out from a Protected Forest.

The establishment of Shelter Homes to house the Kuki-Chin immigrants who had fled neighbouring Myanmar following the military crackdown there is another fact that should be noted to understand the concern raised over infiltration from across the porous border and these facts should be kept in mind while trying to come anywhere near understanding why the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3 was staged at all and why the violence erupted only at Churachandpur and spread to Kangpokpi and Moreh in no time while in the Naga dominated districts such as Senapati, Ukhrul and Tamenglong, nothing happened.

The torching of Forest Offices, the vandalisation of the venue which was readied to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister at Churachandpur, the reported assault of a truck driver-a person perceived to be an outsider as he belongs to a different community-at Churachandpur on the day of the May 3 rally are all stories and events that should be studied to get a better understanding of the Tribal Solidarity Rally at Churachandpur.

Covering up these facts under the ST for Meiteis demand is a narrative that has been cooked up and to remind these would not have sounded politically correct for a political figure like Amit Shah who was here on a peace mission.

But the facts should not be lost on anyone on either side of the clash divide and as professionals engaged with the task of not only covering events but also commenting on issues of importance, it is imperative that the narrative is set right.

The pen pushers and the fly by night operators who land here for a few days to get a ‘juicy story’ and sum up a story that actually goes back many days before May 3 should also note this.

This is not an attempt to justify any acts of violence and as noted many times here earlier, there will be no winner after the clash subsides.

This is the reality, and this is where everyone should ask, who stands to gain by the ongoing violence ?