Weaving a web of deception
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: October 27, 2023 -

FIVE days after making an ridiculous statement in which she asserted that no BJP MLA is demanding separate administration but misunderstanding among the communities gave rise to the demand of separate administration, BJP Manipur Pradesh president A Sharda seems to have been caught in a tangled web of lies and deception she weaves around herself, when she tried to tutor some media persons who dared to raise question on her party's stand regarding the BJP MLAs who are among the 10 MLAs/Ministersfrom Kuki-Chin community seeking a separate administration.

In a video clip which has gone viral, Sharda is seen trying her level best to deflect from answering the question, by retorting that public should discuss how the demand for separate has come about and who are responsible for it.

Asserting that it is time for the people to discuss whether the BJP MLAs are truly the ones raising the demand for a separate administration, Sharda said that the current conflict in Manipur has occurred due to the efforts being made to protect the integrity of Manipur by rectifying the wrong policies of the previous government.

For anyone who wants to analyse and understand the irony of the now nearly six-month-long humanitarian crisis in Manipur, the exact transliteration of what Sharda had said was, "Separate administration asi BJP gi MLA na tanbra, kanana tanbano haibasi meeyamna neinabiyu, matou karamna tallakpano. Thokliba erang asi Manipur da shanti purakpa pamdaba, Manipuri bu thugainaba shanti laktabana hotnaramba adudagi Manipuribu kaidanaba Manipurigi integrity kaidanaba thanglakpa khongthang kayada houkhiba government na thamlamba record kaya aduna disturb tourakpa amadi madubu semdok sadoknaba tungni meerol kannana hotnarakpada thok khibani".

We can't help but amaze at the audacity of Sharda who is trying to shield the 10 MLAs from Kuki-Chin community including seven of whom are from BJP and put the blame squarely on some faulty policies of the previous government for the ethnic violence that has been raging between the Meiteis/Meeteis and Kuki Chin communities since May 3 last without any solution in sight.

By doing so, Sharda has done not only a great disservice to her own party and the government led by it in the state but also made herself the target of the people who have started raising question on her credibility as a responsible leader.

If no BJP MLA had ever raised the demand for a separate administration, then what is to be made of the joint statement issued by 10 Kuki MLAs on May 12, just nine days after the violence broke out, stating,

"As the state of Manipur has miserably failed to protect us, we seek from the Union of India a separate administration under the Constitution of India and live peacefully as neighbours with the state of Manipur",

or the three-page memorandum despatched to Union Home Minister formally requesting "administrative separation" between the tribal Kukis and the majority Meiteis as "Our people have lost faith in the Manipur government and can no longer imagine resettling in the Valley where their lives are no longer safe,"

or the memorandum they submitted to the Prime Minister on August 16 urging for creation of posts similar or equivalent to the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police (DCP) for efficient administration in the hill districts where Kuki-Chin people are in majority.

Last but not least, if loss of hundreds of precious human lives and displacement of thousands of families, not to speak of the untold sufferings caused to people of all communities in the multi-ethnic state for close to six months now are due to some misunderstanding, then what is Sharda going to say of the letter penned by her and seven othertop office bearer of BJP Manipur unit to the party's national president JP Nadda holding its own government responsible for the ongoing ethnic violence in the state.

Rather than festering the wound of the people who are slowly coming to terms with their grief and loss, it would have been better for the BJP Manipur Pradesh president to keep her mouth shut and learn the virtue of keeping quiet from none other than the honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi-ji.