MANORAMA CONCLAVE '24

PM's silence an attempt to normalise disorder in Manipur: Congress MP Angomcha

Thiruvananthapuram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attempting to normalise the disorder in Manipur by staying silent on the deepening divide in the state, said Congress MP from Inner Manipur constituency Angomcha Bimol Akoijam.

He said the Prime Minister should initiate the healing process by visiting the state and ending the violence. "He should say that now he will work. Past is past. His citizens would not be used as guinea pigs in this kind of violence," said Akoijam, a professor of social sciences at the JNU. Akoijam was speaking on the 'Elusive Solution in Manipur' at the Manorama Conclave in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.

The ethnic violence that broke out in Manipur in May 2023 between the Meitei people, the majority that lives in the Imphal valley, and the Kuki-Zo tribes living in the hills, has killed 221 people and around 60,000 people were displaced and still living in "wretched conditions in camps", said Prof Akoijam. "Please remember, in post-colonial Indian history, you have never heard of 60,000 people languishing in wretched conditions in camps," he said.

When the Prime Minister said that schools were opening, he did not mention that "my people (Meitei) cannot go to colleges in Churachandpur (a Kuki-Zo dominated area) or that Churachandpur students do not attend colleges in Imphal, and so on. You know, there's a division. The bureaucracy is divided," he said, adding that a Meitei bureaucrat did not get posted in the hills or a Kuki official posted in Imphal. "It is unheard of in this country," said Akoijam.

He urged the Prime Minister to acknowledge the crisis. But it does not help Manipur when the Prime Minister carries "an attitude that a train tragedy in Odisha matters, a bridge collapse in Gujarat matters, Ukraine matters, but gives a damn to Manipur", said Akoijam, who wrested the Inner Manipur seat from BJP by winning by a historic 1.09 lakh votes. Akoijam said the Lok Sabha election was a clear message that the BJP would be routed in 2027. "That is for the recovery and self-respect of the state's people," he said.

'British created, BJP aggravated'
Akoijam said the violence in Manipur was a legacy issue created by the British but aggravated by the BJP by allowing the bloodbath to continue.

The British created a false topographical map and described the people in the central valley as civilised and those on the surrounding hills as savages. But back then, there was a relationship between the hill and valley people. "They married one other, sometimes went to war together and fought against each other. But it was created as if these were two different sets of people."

The language of the Kuki tribe is part of the Kuki-Chin linguistic family. "Manipuri, the language of Meitei, the first Indo-Mongolian language to be recognised in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution, also belongs to this family," he said.

The Congress MP said the British falsely mapped out and divided the state as hills and the plain, but it was essentially a part of one mountainous region. He said Dehradun is 640m above sea level and Nainital is around 2000m above sea level but both the places in Uttarakhand are considered hill stations. Imphal is 800m above sea level, higher than Dehradun and is treated as it is like a plain area. Churachandpur, the hub of the conflict where the tribe communities reside, is barely 900m above sea level. The difference between Imphal and Churachandpur is only 100m but in the topographical mapping, the British classified the two places as Allahabad and Nainital, he said.

After Independence, instead of reversing these colonial categories, the Indian government reinforced these two sets of communities, he said. "One was classified as a Scheduled Tribe and my community as a general category," he said.

When Manipur joined India, the princely state had a Constitution. "But the government of India bulldozed those constitutions. That dissatisfaction led to the armed movement in Manipur," he said.

As part of countering the insurgency, the Indian state propped up small tribal armed groups, he said. "Many of these so-called Kuki-Zo groups never fought with the Indian state. They have never fired a single bullet against the Armed forces," said Akoijam. "These practices burst into flame...," he said.

The Congress MP said the BJP played both sides by propping up satraps from both communities as defenders and saviours. "Remember that the one asking to defend Manipur is also in the BJP cabinet. The one demanding separation is also in its cabinet," he said. The game plan killed 200 people, destroyed the economy and investment flew away, he said.

As a solution, firstly, he said the Union government must take a firm stance against any demand for a political structure based on communal exclusivist sectarian ideologies. "Then many of these communal cacophonies will disappear," he said.

Secondly, the Prime Minister should visit Manipur, apologise to the people, start the healing process, and strengthen the federal structure. "Else, it may be Manipur today. This erosion of federal structures can happen anywhere," he said.