By Thangzakhup Tombing
The ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki- Zo communities have been continuing unabated for the last three months. By this time the State has witnessed many failed attempts to douse the fire. The feign attempt to impose Article 355 had drastically failed; the CM’s attempt at resignation also failed. Maybe, to propagate the mayhem, there has been shifting of narratives from Kuki illegal immigrants to poppy planters to Kuki narco- terrorists.
The Kuki- Zo community on the other hand have adamantly stood by their demand that since there is palpable fear and danger to their culture and lives, the only immediate reasonable solution is separate administration. With more than 142 recorded deaths and 200 plus Churches belonging to the Kuki-zo communities being razed to the ground in the Imphal valley in the ensuing nights of May 03, 04 and 5th, 2023, the claim of existential crisis supplicated by them to the Central Government is not without merit.
On the other hand, the Meitei counter claimed that they had also suffered losses of lives, properties and places of worship. They even claimed that more than 100 Churches belonging to Meitei Christians were burnt down. Many of the Meitei settling in Kuki- zo dominated areas were driven out of their houses and feared for their lives in areas dominated by Kuki-zo communities.
Therefore, in this hazy claim by both the warring communities to be the primary victims of the ongoing ethnic clashes, the clear picture of who suffered more is mired by confusion, propaganda, manipulations, and twisting and bending of facts.
It is alleged that both the warring ethnic communities believed and propagated their own sets of facts. The heightened polarization between the warring communities seems to be continuously stoked up by revelations of videos and images of brutalities and utmost disregards which were meted out against civilian lives and dignity. After the 25 seconds viral video of two naked Kuki- zo women paraded by an unruly mob on May 4, 2023 was leaked on July 19, 2023, it took the entire nation by storm. Since then, the opposition political party leaders in the Parliament have been demanding discussion on Manipur ethnic violence in the presence of the Prime Minister. The senseless weaponization of women’s bodies as a tool of war had triggered relentless TV debates, protests across the nation, and rallies and speeches organized by different NGOs, CSOs etc. in condemnation of the same. Even the Chairpersons of the Women Commission, Delhi and the National Commission for Women, had to rush to Manipur to take stock of the gravity of the crime.
In a sort of a ripple effect over the sensitivity of the case, the CM of Manipur condemned the heinous acts of the miscreants. The police also swung into action to arrest all those miscreants whose faces were recognizable. By July 22, 2023, five miscreants including the prime accused were identified and arrested by the Manipur Police. A social media byte circulating on the internet allegedly of an interview of the prime accused’s mother, saw her hinting at the fact that her son performed the heinous act for the love of the State. Reports also circulated that the unruly mobs were triggered by the fake news of rape of Meitei nursing students by Kuki-zo community in Churachandpur. The father of the alleged victim, however, had clarified in a local news channel on May 05, 2023 that it was fake news and that his daughter was safe and secure.
The interview of the mother of the 21-year-old victim belonging to the Kuki- zo community was heart wrenching. She narrated that her husband and son were killed by the unruly mob while trying to protect the modesty and dignity of the victim. The interview of the husband of the other surviving victim is again another sordid tale of mayhem and hopelessness. In the interview he narrated that he was a Kargil war veteran who defended the nation against external aggression but he could not defend the modesty and dignity of his wife.
In an interview with the Wire, hosted by Karan Thapar, two women survivors belonging to the Kuki-zo community narrated their horrific ordeal with utmost grace and grit. They described in great detail and with clarity how they had suffered at the hands of the unruly mob on May 04, 2023. Towards the end of the interview, they poignantly declared that they can never live again in a place and with a community that had brutally attacked them, and killed their mother and brother and the other’s mother-in law and husband in the most inhuman way.
The sordid stories of these two surviving women, and also of the survivor tale of a BJP MLA accentuate that there is real existential threat and fear for Kuki-zo community in the Imphal valley. Likewise, for the Meitei community who were displaced from the Kuki-zo community dominated areas, it is palpable that at this juncture there is existential threat for them as well. But Imphal being the state capital, taking all factors into consideration, the apparent and probable existential threat to be suffered by the Kuki-zo community in the days to come is likely to be graver and more consequential for the purposes of health-related facilities, education, and job opportunities.
On hindsight, one wonders even if the concerns of illegal immigration and the noble intent of checking of unrestrained poppy plantation in the hill tracts were true and real, rather than allowing the targeting and branding of certain community as vile, shouldn’t the State have ensured the rule of law and the due process of law to curb the alleged menace? The unleashing of the seed of hatred and allowing sneaky parasites to freely execute hatred and violence by allowing them to operate in darkness for three months has now plunged Manipur state into complete darkness and insurmountable chasm of distrust.
(Dr Thangzakhup Tombing is presently working as Assistant Professor of Law at National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam. His core area of research is Legal Pluralism, Private International Law, and Customary Laws and Institutions).