– Siyaram Pandey ‘Calm’
Manipur is burning. Ethnic and religious tension is at its peak there. The matchstick of politics is also involved in this fire of tension. Nowadays political parties are more interested in inciting violence than in quelling it. The Meitei community, which has been subjected to armed attacks, is mostly Hindu and some are Muslim while the attacking communities, Naga and Kuki, follow Christianity. The struggle has gained momentum due to the government’s proposal to give Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community. People of Naga and Kuki communities feel that if Meiteis are also included in the Scheduled Tribes, then there will be a situation of division of their own benefits under reservation, which is not favorable for their community. There are three main communities in Manipur with a population of 30-35 lakhs; Maitai, Naga and Kuki. Meitais are also more in population and their political supremacy in the state is also more. Of the total 60 seats in the Manipur Legislative Assembly, 40 MLAs are from the Meitai community. The remaining 20 come from the Naga and Kuki tribes. Of the 12 chief ministers of the state, two belonged to the Meitei community. Even after this, the attacks on the Meitei community are beyond comprehension.
Despite all the efforts of the central and state government, the struggle in Manipur is not taking the name of stopping, so the violence of some political parties is also responsible to a great extent for this. The situation in Manipur has become so bad that the people of Kuki and Naga communities are attacking and killing the people of Meitei community after finding them through drone cameras. This situation is very worrying. There is an urgent need to consider this and take some very concrete and effective steps.
The recent attacks by armed men in Manipur’s Khamelok village in Meitei-dominated Kangpoki district and Imphal East district, killing 12 people and injuring 30, is a sign that the Kuki and Naga communities have lost their temper in the fight for rights. The instructions and rules and regulations of the government do not matter to the people of They can go to any extent to balance their convenience. In Khamelok village, the people of Kuki community injured nine people in an armed attack the night before. Knowing the location of the people of the Meitei community through drones, attacking them at night when they are sleeping is both cowardice and a violation of human rights.
A day earlier also, in Phoga Kachao Ikhai village of Bishnupur district of Manipur state, excesses of Kuki community people were seen. When the Kuki community’s attempt to build bunkers in Meitei areas was stopped by the security forces, they clashed with them and also fired with them. It is another matter that in the wake of the violence, the government has banned internet in the state, but when water is flowing above the head, mere formalities will not do. Something special and unexpected will also have to be done. It has to be done on time otherwise there will be no option left except shaking hands.
President of the North-East Coordination Council and Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma and State Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had also met on this issue on June 10 and had mutual introspection, but it has no effect on the Kuki community. Does not know The continued provocative actions of the cookie community are not to be taken lightly. He is about to submit his report to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Amit Shah himself has also visited Manipur for four days. If needed, he can visit Manipur even further. If the central government does not strictly control this matter, then such disputes may arise in other states as well. There also people can mobilize for the fight for rights and can prove to be a headache for the state.
The violence since May 3 has claimed over 100 lives in Manipur. 320 have been injured and more than 47 thousand people are forced to stay in 272 relief camps. After this violence, 11 officers of the state have been transferred. These include IAS and IPS officers. After the violence, when Home Minister Amit Shah came to Manipur on a four-day visit, Director General of Police P. Dongle was removed and replaced by Rajeev Singh. To restore peace in the state, the central government also formed a committee under the chairmanship of the governor, in which the chief minister, some ministers of the state government, MPs, MLAs and leaders of various political parties have participated.
On June 9, three people were killed in separate incidents in the Kuki-dominated Khoken village near the capital Imphal. The Manipur Police had said that 57 arms, 1,588 ammunition and 23 bombs have been recovered from Imphal East, Kakching, Tengnoupal and Bishnupur districts of Manipur in the last 24 hours. A total of 953 arms, 13,351 ammunition and 223 bombs have been recovered in the state since the violence. On June 9 itself, the Central Bureau of Investigation had registered 6 cases in connection with the Manipur violence. A ten-member SIT has been formed for the investigation. On June 9 itself, the vacation bench of the Supreme Court refused to hear the Internet ban in the state from May 3 immediately. A bench of Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Rajesh Bindal had said that let the hearing be held first in the High Court.
On the other hand, the people of the Meitei community, who are demanding reservation for their cultural identity, argue that they had the status of a tribe in the princely state before their merger with the Indian Union in 1949. In the last 70 years, the Meitei population has decreased from 62 percent to around 50 percent, while the Naga and Kuki tribes of Manipur are opposing the reservation for the Meitei community. The Nagas occupy 90 percent of the state’s area and the Kukis form 34 percent of the state’s population. They say that 40 of the state’s 60 assembly seats are already in the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley. Under the current law, the Meitei community is not allowed to settle in the hilly areas of the state.
The reason for the recent violence in Manipur is being attributed to the proposal of reservation for the Meitei community, while in August 2022, the Naga and Kuki tribes settled in the forest area of ​​Churachandpur were ordered to be evicted by the government of Chief Minister Biren Singh, terming them as intruders. The displeasure of the community is also believed to be the root cause of this. Some people also consider the high court’s order to be responsible for the current violence. Recently, the Manipur High Court, while hearing a petition by the Meitei Tribe Union, had asked the state government to consider granting tribe status to the Meitei community. Not only this, opinion of the Manipur government was also sought on this matter pending for ten years. Although the Manipur High Court has not given any order regarding the grant of tribe status to the Meitei community, but has given only an observation, but the Naga and Kuki communities have misunderstood it and resorted to violence, which is not justified in any way. Can go The very next day of this observation, the Hill Areas Committee of the Manipur Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution expressing grief over the order of the High Court.
One has to think that the Indian culture has been of cooperation and cooperation. There has been a decline in the practice of feeding others and having food yourself. We are getting the benefit of reservation, so other communities should not get reservation, this thinking is perverted as well as the culmination of selfishness. It is hoped that the leaders who are looking for political gains for themselves in this violence, irrespective of the party they belong to, will think once that how many more lives will this game of reservation take? How appropriate is it to put the interests of the country at stake for one’s vested interests? When the Kukis and Nagas can buy land in the Imphal Valley, why can’t the Meiteis do so in other areas of the state? How appropriate it is to confine a particular community to an area and open fire on them in the dark of night should also be considered.
(The author is associated with Hindusthan Samachar.)
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