Manipur is on the boil again. After months of simmering tension, now open hostilities have broken out in the state that has seen a sharp ethnic divide between the Kuki-Zomo tribes and the Hindu Meiteis. Three Meitei women and three children went missing from the Jiribam camp for the displaced after a gunfight between security forces and militants killed 10 insurgents. Protests broke out after the bodies of the missing women and children were allegedly recovered. Three state ministers and six ruling party MLAs’ houses were attacked. Curfew has been imposed and Internet services have been suspended after this latest round of violence. This sensitive border state of 3.2 million has been facing unrest since May 2023. Almost 250 people have been killed and 60,000 displaced in the turmoil. The ethnic divisions have become sharper with the majority Meiteis controlling the Imphal Valley while the hills are controlled by the Kukis. Separating the two areas is a stretch of no-man’s land policed by Central paramilitary forces. Though ethnic tensions have always been present in the state, the immediate trigger for the violence in May 2023 was a High Court ruling asking the state government to seek reservation for Meiteis in jobs. This irked the Kukis who felt their share of the quota pie would be eaten into. Though the offending paragraph in the High Court order was later withdrawn the damage was done.
In the wake of recent tensions, the Centre imposed the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in some areas of the Imphal Valley but the N Biren Singh-led state government has called for its withdrawal. Fifteen months after the unrest began in Manipur, the Centre and state government have not been able to bring the situation under control. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to visit the troubled state. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has been relentless in highlighting the PM’s alleged indifference to the north-eastern state. In fact, the Centre’s north-east outreach through which it has made spectacular electoral gains in the region has suffered as a result of the Manipur situation. In the Lok Sabha election, the BJP lost both seats in the state. One of its alliance partners in the state government, the Conrad Sangma-led NPP has walked out. Though this will have no impact on the government’s stability, it is a reflection of the lack of confidence in the saffron party to restore normalcy in Manipur. Home Minister Amit Shah cancelled meetings in poll-bound Maharashtra to return to Delhi and chair a meeting on the Manipur situation. With the winter session of Parliament slated to begin next week, the Opposition is bound to turn up the heat on the issue. It is imperative that the Centre and the state government get their act together and restore at least a semblance of normalcy in Manipur even if there is no hope of healing the deep rift that ethnic divisions have caused.
