Manipur vs Kashmir: Different strokes for different folks

Only political leadership can bring about peace in Manipur; but, the Modi government and the BJP are hog-tied by having links with both camps engaged in the violence.

Since ethnic violence began in Manipur two months ago nearly 50,000 people have been displaced, nearly 130 lives lost, and hundreds injured from both the majority Meitei and the minority Kuki communities. The non-Meitei Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum has claimed that 201 tribal villages have been burnt down, and over 500 houses, 355 churches, and church buildings destroyed.

For less, state governments have been dismissed under Article 356. In Manipur, the Centre has been reluctant to even invoke Article 355 allowing it to take over law and order in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained radio silence while the state burns.

Surprisingly, the Indian Army has released a video on Twitter ostensibly showing women activists obstructing its peace-keeping operations in Manipur. It shows that Meitei women not only regularly accompany armed rioters in their vehicles, but they also block the movement of the Army to allow arson and affect logistical movement. They facilitated the digging up of entry and exit roads to the camps of the Assam Rifles using a JCB.

Most alarmingly, the Army has claimed that Meitei women protesters forced them to release a dreaded terrorist who masterminded the attack on a Dogra Regiment convoy in 2015 in which 20 soldiers died. They also forced the Army to release 12 militants of Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup, including its self-styled Lt. Col. Moirangthen Tamba aka Uttam, who was arrested in possession of arms, and ammunition.

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Clearly, some army personnel who have served in other theatres of civil unrest are appalled at the turn of events in Manipur. Former Lieutenant General H S Panag tweeted, “A sharp contrast with happenings in Manipur where mobs are forcing release of terrorists from acquiescing military! Jammu and Kashmir, Pulwama: Major accused of forcing worshippers at mosque to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in Kashmir.” The concerned officer is now believed to have been removed by the Army for his alleged behaviour.

Another veteran told the media, “I am sure the Army would have responded in a different manner if such an incident had happened in Kashmir.” A retired Army colonel reportedly contrasted the two faces of the Army in Kashmir and Manipur by recalling how the top brass had praised Major Leetul Gogoi for the horrific display of brute power by tying an innocent Kashmir civilian, Farooq Ahmad Dar, to the bonnet of his jeep as human-shield against stone-throwing protestors.

The police need to recover the 4,000-odd automatic and semi-automatic weapons looted from May 3 onwards (apparently about 1,800 have since been recovered). Unless this is done, neither the police nor the security forces can operate effectively — they can be shot at by anyone in possession of the looted weapons and ammunition.

Clearly Manipur is not Kashmir. Neither the Army nor the Assam Rifles have used force to disperse the Meitei women activists who have disrupted their movement and forced release of political prisoners. The videos express their helplessness and wittingly or unwittingly distance them from the situation developing in Manipur.

Only political leadership can bring about peace and reconciliation. However, the Narendra Modi government and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are hog-tied by having links with both camps engaged in the violence. N Biren Singh, the Chief Minister of Manipur heading a BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is a Meitei. On the other side militant Kuki outfits claim they helped the BJP come to power in Manipur for the first time in 2017. A letter dated 2019, was submitted in an affidavit to the NIA court on June 8. Addressed to Union Home Minister Amit Shah it claims that two prominent leaders of the BJP — Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and Ram Madhav, then the party in-charge for the North-East — had taken the help of Kuki militant organisations to win the 2017 assembly election. It was submitted by S Haokip, Chairman of militant group United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF), with whom the government has entered in a suspension of operation agreement.

Shah has been unable to deliver on ensuring a cease-fire between the two ethnicities that he promised a month ago. In a very unusual move, after meeting Shah in Delhi, Singh issued a statement that suggests a ‘division of responsibility’ with one of them will deal with the Kuki hill tribes and the other with the Meitis who dominate Imphal valley. It says, “the Union home minister has assured to take maximum responsibility for the hill districts and at the same time instructed the government to ensure that peace is restored in the valley with cooperation of the civil society organisations, including Meira Paibis.” For binding peace between the hills and the valley, however, there must be a single political narrative shared by both the Centre and the state leadership, rather than seeing the hill and the valley as two entities to be told two different narratives.

Shah claimed Manipur was slowly returning to normal after an all-party meeting, “Since the late night of June 13, not a single person has died in violence in the state." Although two more deaths occurred on June 29, ethnic animosity on the ground cannot only be measured in the numbers of deaths. The absence of deadly violence does not necessarily herald the dawn of peace, especially in the aftermath of ethnic cleansing in both the Imphal valley and surrounding hill districts.

The two Lok Sabha seats that Manipur represents may not mean much in the larger scheme of things to the BJP for 2024. Unable to blame a non-existent Opposition in the state, identify a ‘tukde-tukde gang’, urban Naxalites, jihadis or Pakistan-sponsored militants, there is nothing the BJP can leverage for electoral benefits in the rest of India. Nor unlike Kashmir, will the forced exodus of communities from the valley and the hills of Manipur have any electoral consequences for a party in the relentless pursuit of power?

(Bharat Bhushan is a Delhi-based journalist.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.