Manipur Crisis: Remaining Neutral Is Not An Option For The Union Government Anymore

The Union government has so far maintained a neutral stand in the raging ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kukis in violence-wracked Manipur. 

That’s because the government, specifically the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has been trying its best to play the role of an honest peacebroker between the two communities. 

So much so that even central security forces have been issued strict instructions to exercise utmost restraint, even in the face of grave provocations, and react only if they are attacked. 

New Delhi’s interlocutors — senior officials of the MHA and Intelligence Bureau (IB) — have held many rounds of discussions with leaders of both the communities in an effort to bring about peace. 

But all these attempts have been unsuccessful. And there is now no hope for peace returning to Manipur. 

The divide between the two communities is deepening. The situation in the state is only set to worsen. There is now the real danger of things spiralling out of control and Manipur becoming engulfed in intractable civil war and anarchy. 

This being the case, the Union government now needs to confront the following hard facts:

1. The Kuki-Zo community is simply not interested in talks with the Meiteis because that would defeat the very purpose of their violent struggle for a separate state. 

It must be acknowledged — and there is no way around this — that the ethnic violence in Manipur was triggered by unprovoked and brutal attacks on Meiteis by the Kukis on 3 May last year. 

That triggered counter-attacks on Kukis in Imphal Valley, setting off a cycle of attacks and counter-attacks which continues to this day.

This endless cycle of violence over the past 18 months has created a deep divide between the two communities that appears to be unbridgeable now. 

That is what the Kuki-Zo community wanted: a deep ethnic divide that will buttress the community’s demand for a separate ‘Kukiland’ state. 

Hence, the Kuki-Zo community is not interested in peace and reconciliation with the Meiteis. Kuki-Zo community leaders, civil society leaders, and politicians have repeatedly said that the only solution to the current crisis in the state is the creation of a separate state for them.

2. The Meiteis, on the other hand, have never ruled out the prospect of a reconciliation and co-existence with Kukis. 

Despite all the violence, the Meiteis have never said they cannot co-exist with the Kuki-Zo community. 

Yes, Meitei radical organisations like the Arambai Tenggol have carried out attacks on innocent Kuki-Zo people and killed them. The involvement of some Meitei militant outfits in the violence also cannot be ruled out. 

But a distinction must be made between Meitei militant and radical outfits and the Kuki-Zo terror outfits. The latter have strong organic links with Chin ethnic armed organisations (EAOs of Myanmar, which are fighting the military regime there). As such, the Kuki-Zo terror outfits pose a grave threat to India’s security.

3. All those who stay in Manipur, including the Kuki-Zo community, know for a fact that the hill districts of the state have undergone a huge demographic change due to steady illegal infiltration of Kuki-Chin people from Myanmar over the past few decades. 

The illegal immigrants from Myanmar, as is well known, have cleared vast tracts of forests and are engaged in largescale illegal poppy cultivation that also yields a lot of revenue for the Kuki-Zo terror outfits. 

Kuki-Zo community organisations in Manipur have encouraged this illegal influx from Myanmar in order to increase their population and, thus, strengthen their claim for a separate state. 

The community has tried to falsify history while laying claim to vast areas in the hills of Manipur as their ‘ancestral homeland’. This has, even in the past, triggered fierce opposition from other communities, including the Nagas. 

4. The Kuki-Zo community has been working towards their goal of carving out a separate ‘Kukiland’ state in a sinister manner for the past few decades.

They have settled down in areas where they had no presence or were in a small minority, and then added to their numbers. After becoming numerically strong, the Kuki-Zo people have, through well-planned violence, displaced other communities from those areas and have declared those areas to be part of their ‘ancestral homeland’. 

A case in point is Moreh, a trading hub on the Indo-Myanmar border that was home to Nagas, Meiteis, Tamils, Gorkhas, Biharis, Marwaris, and Bengalis, with only a sprinkling of Kukis. 

But targeted attacks on first the Nagas and then the other communities (one at a time) has led to members of these communities emigrating. Today, Moreh is in the control of Kukis, who facilitate illegal entry of their brethren from Myanmar through this border town. 

It must be mentioned here that the Kuki-Chins are a pastoral community which has practised shifting cultivation. As such, they have migrated from one place to another over the past couple of centuries and have no ‘homeland’ of their own. 

When Manipur became part of the Indian Union in 1949, the population of the Kuki-Zo community was miniscule. Their present strength — more than 5 lakh — in Manipur is solely because of largescale, illegal immigration from Myanmar over the past few decades. 

5. The Kuki-Zo demand to carve out a separate ‘Kukiland’ state from Manipur is part of the larger design of the greater Zo community (Kukis, Chins, Hmars, Mizos, etc) to have an independent ‘Christian country’ comprising Mizoram and areas of Myanmar, Bangladesh, Manipur, and even Assam inhabited by the Zo people.

Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina referred to this sinister gameplan (read this) months before she was overthrown. 

“Like East Timor, they will carve out a Christian country, taking parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar with a base in the Bay of Bengal,” Hasina had said. She had not mentioned that the project — of creating a Christian country — also includes parts of North East India, but that would have been an "unintentional omission" on her part.

The Union government must nip this project, which poses a serious threat to India’s integrity and also to regional security, in the bud. And by brute force, if necessary.

The Centre’s reaction to the recent spurt in violence in Manipur has been mindlessly bureaucratic — it has sent additional Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) troopers to the state. 

But more boots on the ground will make no difference unless the restraint imposed on the troops is withdrawn. 

The Union government cannot afford to remain neutral any longer; it has to take a side, and take the side of the truth, keeping national interest and other factors in mind.

Meiteis have been ruling over Manipur for nearly two millenia — the first king of the Ningthouja dynasty started his reign in 33 CE, and the present titular king (the 103rd in the line of kings of the dynasty) Leishemba Sanajaoba is now a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP). As such, it is the Meiteis, and not the Kukis, whose interests should be considered paramount. 

The Meiteis are Vaishnavites and belong to the Sanatan family. Hence, they, and not the Kuki-Zo infiltrators, are rightful citizens of Bharat. 

The Government of India has to shed its non-partisan stance and commit itself to protecting the Meiteis in the greater interest of Bharat. Kuki-Zo infiltrators have to be treated at par with illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh. 

It is only right that the Kuki-Zo infiltrators are detected and deported, and their terror outfits liquidated. 

The shackles imposed on security forces — the Army, Assam Rifles, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), and state police — have to be removed, and they have to be told to act decisively to root out the menace of Kuki-Zo terrorism. 

Only by eliminating Kuki-Zo terrorism and detecting and deporting all illegal immigrants from Myanmar can peace return to Manipur.

Also Read:

Explained: 'Western Conspiracy' To Create A New Christian Nation In The Region That Sheikh Hasina Revealed Months Before Ouster

Attacks On Security Forces In Manipur Highlights Need For All-Out Offensive Against Kuki Terror Groups

Eradicating Kuki Militancy In Manipur Must Now Be A Priority For The Modi Government