Manipur in turmoil as breakthrough elusive

GUNBATTLES between the security forces and militants have heightened tensions in Manipur. Police personnel have succumbed to militant attacks in the border town of Moreh in Tengnoupal district. Three personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) were injured when gunmen tried to storm the police headquarters in Thoubal district late on Wednesday night.

An exhausted state machinery, devoid of novel tactics, is merely attempting to stave off terror strikes and is falling prey to newer, belligerent manoeuvres. The militants, having sophisticated weaponry which they have been allowed to retain, are waging a new form of urban warfare. The attacks have also diverted attention from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in the North-East.

In what is proving to be an unending cycle of violence, Manipur has been witnessing an exchange of fire between suspected Kuki militants and members of the India Reserve Battalion in Moreh. Two commandos were killed in a gunfight earlier this week.

Resistant to various counter-insurgency interventions, the situation in Manipur is putting the Indian state to a stern test. The fact that the BJP is in power both in Imphal and New Delhi has not helped matters. Indeed, it has only worsened the situation, with dubious political patronage being extended to people who should have been dealt with firmly to bring the situation under control.

A hostile ethnic divide, ordained by the incongruities of the state’s geography, had been tolerated even before Manipur became a part of the Indian union. Laws peculiar to the land that divided the hills and the valley had always been a matter of concern for the majority Meitei community. But dissonance never came out into the open. Indeed, in the past, there had been ‘islands’ of pacifism when a Naga (Rishang Keishing) had become the Chief Minister. It is also part of the Meitei lore that a valley wedding always had a hill component and a Meitei couple entering into wedlock had to undergo a certain undemanding but important ceremony with the Tangkhul community before the marriage could be solemnised. But much has changed in recent times. Indeed, Nagas have battled in the past over land, and Meiteis (although not overtly) had always complained about unequal rights that provided for tribals to purchase land and property without reciprocation for the former. This, according to the accounts of many valley residents, is the root of the problem. On the other hand, the fact that the Manipur High Court order sought to correct the anomaly was unacceptable to the hill tribes.

Following the outbreak of violence last year, this writer toured Manipur. Visiting charred Kuki hamlets in Imphal and surrounding areas and journeying to the hills of Churachandpur, it became evident that the divide was complete. Meetings with civil society leaders of Meitei and Kuki communities, as also security forces, traders and journalists of the state, drew a dismal, distressing picture. It seemed obvious that peace would not return to the ‘Land of Emeralds’ (Manipur) unless there was out-of-the-box thinking to deal with the divisions between the warring communities.

But even as the powers that be dither, the problem becomes murkier. Political parties are trying to derive mileage out of people’s misery. I witnessed a heart-wrenching scene in a Vaiphei relief camp — infants clinging to mothers who were unable to lactate due to malnutrition. Abductions, unsavoury acts against women and butchery have become the norm.

The entry of insurgents from across Myanmar has added to the crisis. Though the government has been able to bring over ground a faction of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF-Pambei), the fact is that the Group of Five continues to billet itself in three clusters of Sagaing division.

Apart from members of the Koireng faction of the UNLF, the People’s Liberation Army (Manipur), People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (two factions), Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup and the Kangleipak Communist Party are residents of these clusters. These groups, aided and abetted by Chinese masters, are entering Manipur from Myanmar. It has been learnt that even the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) or NSCN-IM, which is in dialogue with the Indian government, is helping them enter India via the Somra tracts of Sagaing division.

In the meantime, the Suspension of Operations (SoO) groups, comprising Kuki formations that had entered into a ceasefire agreement with the security forces several years ago (and had continued to hold arms), are battling Meitei insurgent groups as well as the security forces. It is a faction of the SoO group that killed a police commando earlier this week.

Manipur is being torn apart by warring insurgents. Groups such as Arambai Tenggol and Meetei Lipun have sworn to restore Meitei supremacy over what was once a Meitei-ruled princely state. Better sense can prevail only if the state shows firm resolve.

The Inspector General of Assam Rifles (South), Maj Gen Rajan Sharawat, at a meeting hosted by him in Imphal, made a suggestion: Six representatives each from the Meitei and Kuki communities could be airlifted to a place such as Guwahati or Shillong, where a conclave could be held as part of efforts to achieve a breakthrough.

It remains to be seen how the people who were present at the meeting and listening attentively would act. As Paul Von Hindenburg once said, “In war, only the simple succeeds.”