By Krishna Jha
How long it takes to listen to the victim’s tearful cries? That too when she is a mother of a four-year old, dares to plead to the demons for her life as her death could be the death of her child too. Their assent to it has been conditional. “Disrobe yourself or die.”
The stream of violence keeps flowing since last one year. There have been many victims, unnoticed, unlamented, unavenged. For the women of Manipur, not only the country, the entire world stands stunned. As the unrest in Manipur continues unabated in north-east India, authorities remain quiet. With a population of three million, Manipur, a state in north-east India, has been witness to continued violence among the tribes, mainly between the majority Meitei community and the minority Kuki tribe. In the recent flare up, many more have been killed. More than thousand have been reported injured. More than seventy thousand have lost their home and livelihood. There have been set up more relief camps in last one year and people in their own country have turned refugee looking for shelter, security, food and medicine. Several thousands have taken shelter in neighboring states. Some have come to Delhi also. The unrest started on May 3, 2023, with the solidarity rally by various tribal groups underlining the issues of social status and tribal rights. It provoked distrust in communities especially between Meities and Kukies.
In Manipur there have been communities like KukieZos, Meities and Nagas. They are all Tibeto Barmans, said to be migrated from Northwestern parts of China. Myanmar was their first halt. Later they preferred to shift to what is now called Manipur. However, Meities consider themselves as the original settlers and Kukies as migrants. Both the communities are generally from the Imphal valley regions while on the hills have settled the Nagas. Land holding patterns are still fluid with a colonial influence. The politico-economic issues are stained with fault lines that divide them in “Us” and “them” without any awareness of affinities. Meities have complains that KukiZos, the “illegal migrants” in the valley area, grow poppy and indulge in drug abuse which destroy the lives of the youth. In return, the KukiZos and other tribes in the hills hold those in valley responsible for their poverty, driving them to the margins of the state. There is hardly available any health care centre or educational institutions like schools and colleges. Imphal was and has been the nerve centre of these atrocities. Kangpokpi, a hill district, has been victim of repeated violence. Churachandpur, another hill district with 90 percent tribal population, faces the same plight. It is true that now number of violent incidents has been less, but intensity is same and some time even more barbaric.
Our composite culture, Constitution, and the democratic ethos are also under threat. Never has India witnessed such barbarity. And such unbridled violence against women symbolize the macabre conflict as a message. The absence of any motivation to take action is also part of it. The violence continues, relentlessly.
A year has gone but turmoil continues and peace remains elusive turning it into a tragedy that swallows up the entire region. The horror lies in the abdication of responsibilities(by the central and the state governments). People have nowhere to go asking for respite. Prime minister has practically no care about the barbaric violence that has engulfed the region, despite the fact that it is now over a year. The prime minister has to identify and resolve the situation and if it is not done, he should abdicate the position. Manipur is in fact in dire need of able leadership that can get both Meities, Kuki-Zos and the Nagas on the same platform. There has to be an effort to soothe the hurt, but no initiative for peace is seen in the horizon. None of the fighting communities see each other eye to eye. Even those from human rights groups usually active in Manipur have preferred to be passive.
The state of Manipur is in need of development initiatives, not destruction, but the ravages have a different story to tell. Manipur comes only third after UP and Bihar among states in the country so far as lowest per capita income is concerned. Deprivation leads to wretchedness and breeds negativity. There is bitter antagonism among the tribes.
The political climate in the state is also heavily under the influence of identity politics. This politics has strong influence on ruling forces and continuously creates rifts that leave the state in pieces. In the troubled waters of the state, the government has come out with a statement that says there is “unnatural” growth of 996 villages due to illegal migration and called it a threat to “indigenous people and national security”. Of course no source has been mentioned of any research on it. The fact is that people do not have freedom to enjoy their rights. There have been complete failure to address the issues they face, like the complex issue of land, identity of social and cultural issues among different communities, misuse of forest lands, unemployment. The ethnic violence has become sharper along with the growing awareness about their separate ethnicity. There is also continued campaign of RSS launched to divide the people on religious lines.
The BJP government has not only failed the people in the state, it is the leading factor in this entire tragic situation. (IPA Service)
