'Crisis stems from narco-terrorism, State inaction'
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 24 2025: Although the Manipur crisis is dismissed as an internal matter, it stems from transnational narco-terrorism and deliberate State inaction.

This was stated by human rights and environmental activists Jodha Heikrujam at 24th United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues.

Speaking at the UN Headquarters, New York, USA on April 23, 2025, Jodha Heikrujam said that the indigenous Meitei community is being erased through violent conflict, demographic manipulation, and colonization masked as governance.

'Crisis stems from narco-terrorism, State inaction'

"The Indian Constitution, which promised to protect us, now stands hollow.

Our crisis is dismissed as internal, yet it stems from transnational narco-terrorism and deliberate State inaction", he said. For the last two years, Manipur has endured an unrelenting humanitarian and indigenous crisis.

Over 200 lives have been lost, more than 4,700 houses burned, and over 60,000 people-mostly indigenous-have been displaced and forced to live in overcrowded refugee camps with limited access to food, clean water, and healthcare.

"Many displaced women and children have been subjected to horrific crimes-rape, beheadings, mutilations-and the psychological toll has led to a tragic increase in suicides.

Our youth, once hopeful and aspirational, now carry arms out of necessity, not ideology-because the Indian Constitution failed to protect us", Jodha said.

The root of the crisis lies in decades of unchecked migration through Manipur's 398 Km porous border with Myanmar, where illegal immigrant narco-terrorists entered under the guise of refugees and, over time, illegally obtained Indian citizenship, permanently altering the region's demographic balance.

The complete failure of the Indian Govt to protect and safeguard its citizens from the alien group is a major factor contributing to the crisis.

Today, these same groups seek to create an ethnocentric homeland-a pre-planned strategy to integrate illegal immigrant narco-terrorists inhabited areas across India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh under ethno-political entrepreneurs aiming to establish a separate Nation, Jodha told the UN forum.

These groups are not only involved in violence but in poppy cultivation and drug trafficking, which has brought untold misery to Manipur and the entire Golden Triangle region.

This is not merely a domestic issue.

It has evolved into a regional security threat with global implications, connected to illicit arms smuggling, transnational narcotics trade, and geopolitically motivated destabilization, he said.

The crisis stems from a violent conflict between indigenous communities and armed Chin-Kuki narco-terrorist groups that infiltrated Manipur through Myanmar's porous border, he pointed out.

The conflict is often mischaracterized as an inter-community dispute but in truth, it is a Constitutional crisis-a failure to uphold citizenship laws, governance, and the protection of fundamental rights enshrined in India's own Constitution.

Today, Manipur is under President's Rule, an admission that the State Government has utterly failed to maintain law and order and the Indian Constitution is no longer being upheld, he said.

While the indigenous people of Manipur are being slaughtered and displaced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has remained completely silent.

Since May 3, 2023, he has undertaken numerous international and domestic visits, yet he has not visited Manipur even once, nor has he uttered a single word to call for peace or solidarity with his people.

Manipur today suffers the highest inflation rate in India, with its economy devastated by conflict, drug trade, and loss of livelihoods, Jodha continued.

Asking as to why the Indian Government is unable to resolve the crisis even after two years if it is truly an internal matter, the human rights activist pointed out that the conflict is not just internal but entangled in a web of international narco-terrorism, geopolitical interference, divide and rule policy and transnational insurgency.

If the world remains silent, it will not only fail the Meitei but set a dangerous precedent for indigenous struggles globally, he said.

He then urged the UN forum and Member States to mediate with the Indian Govt, to implement the UN Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous People strictly and to ensure the safe return of displaced indigenous peoples to their original houses at the earliest and consider granting Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei native indigenous people, if Constitutional criteria are met, to ensure lasting protection of Meitei native indigenous people.