MHS urges to verify claims amid fake narratives
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, June 21 2025: Meitei Heritage Society (MHS) has cautioned national and regional media organisations against publishing fake press statements and distorted claims aimed at maligning the Meetei community and provoking ethnic tensions in Manipur.

The society condemned what it described as a "deliberate and dangerous" disinformation campaign by certain Chin-Kuki organisations and affiliated social media pages.

In a statement issued on Saturday, MHS said that while it believes the errors may have stemmed from deadline pressures and challenges of reporting in conflict zones, such lapses have serious implications on public perception and communal harmony.

The Society said that it has engaged directly with editors and journalists of some organisations, submitted evidence including police and government statements, and acknowledged their decision to update and correct factually incorrect parts in their reports.

However, despite these interventions, several "malicious claims" continued to circulate with what it described as a clear intent to incite hatred and distort the facts surrounding recent incidents in Manipur.

Citing a recent example, the Society referred, to reports claiming that a Kuki woman of Langchingmanbi village was killed by Meetei militants.

Manipur Police had clarified in a statement that a Meetei farmer, Ningthoujam Biren Singh, was shot by an unknown armed miscreant while working in his paddy field.

Security forces subsequently launched a search operation around Langchingmanbi village, during which they came under fire from armed miscreants.

The woman was killed in the resulting crossfire, not in a targeted attack, as per the police version.

MHS noted that many journalists covering Manipur are aware that Meetei paddy fields lie in the valley, while Chin-Ku -ki settlements are on the hill slopes, and therefore the origin of the gunfire was evident, even if the police had refrained from naming any community in its initial statements.

Two major media outlets corrected their reports, the statement said, and MHS acknowledged their responsiveness.

The Society also addressed misinformation related to Lamnunthem Singson, a Thadou woman who was killed in the recent Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad.

Contrary to claims on social media and a post by the Kerala unit of the Congress party, MHS said that the Manipur government had issued a public notice on June 16 stating that all arrangements had been made to facilitate the arrival of her body at Imphal airport.

The Thadou tribe, to which Sing-son belonged, welcomed the announcement and warned against attempts to politicise the tragedy.

The Society clarified that while Singson's family ultimately decided not to bring the body to Imphal, their decision was based on pressure and the need for privacy.

It criticised what it called a media spectacle created along the Dimapur-Kangpokpi route, describing it as an event "sponsored by frontal groups of Chin-Kuki militant organisations" that turned the tragedy into a publicity opportunity.

The Kerala Congress unit later deleted its tweet, and MHS appreciated the acknowledgment.

The same tweet falsely claimed that the body of a Meetei cabin crew member who also died in the crash had already been received and cremated, whereas that body was still in Ahmedabad awaiting identification.

Addressing another incident, the Society responded to claims that members of Arambai Tenggol had declared Shirui Hills to be Meetei land.

According to MHS, the Video in question merely showed Arambai Teng-gol members standing atop the Shirui hilltop holding the Salai Taret flag while chanting slogans like "Mother Manipur" and "Long Live Manipur" .

However, a Facebook page run by a Chin-Kuki team allegedly miscaptioned the video to falsely claim that the group had said Manipur belonged only to Meeteis.

MHS said that the page was shut down after a Meetei fact-check team exposed the admins' identities and the content's inaccuracy.

MHS also revisited the narrative surrounding the origins of the May 3, 2023 violence.

It rejected claims made in an opinion piece by Hyderabad-based professor Kham Khan Suan Hausing in The Indian Express, which alleged that Meetei mobs had destroyed the Anglo-Kuki War Memorial Gate in retaliation for an assault on a Meetei driver in Churachandpur.

The Society said that the so-called gate was never destroyed and cited a statement by Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi, who personally inspected the site and confirmed that only a few tyres had been burned at the concrete base of the memorial.

The Society called this initial narrative the start of a wider campaign of disinformation that continued through multiple articles and opinion pieces in national media outlets, which were later studied and critiqued in a research project titled 'National' Media and Manipur Mayhem: The Fourth Estate as a Site of Information War, led by Inner Manipur MP Dr Bimol Akoijam and researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi.

MHS urged journalists and media outlets to thoroughly verify claims before publication, especially when reporting on issues that could deepen the ethnic divide.

Acknowledging the challenges of reporting from Manipur due to access and resource limitations, the Society appealed to the press not to let these limitations enable the dissemination of propaganda by vested interests.

Comment