New Delhi: Resentment among people against the elected representatives for alleged inadequate government response to the violence which erupted in Manipur earlier this month, could be the reason behind the attack on his house in the heart of the state capital, Imphal, Union minister of state (MoS) for external affairs and member of Parliament from Inner Imphal constituency, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, told ThePrint in an interview Saturday.
Singh’s house was attacked, allegedly by a large, angry mob, on the night of 25 May.
“It is one of the major factors. The common people in the [Imphal] Valley feel that for quite a long time, an active response from the government did not come. That suffocation is there… In the meantime, different political parties might have also instigated the mob,” said Singh, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member.
Violence erupted between Manipur’s ethnic Kuki tribals and non-tribal Meitei community earlier this month, centred on the Meiteis’ demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, which the Kukis say is a bid to secure constitutional safeguards for the community. The 3 May ethnic clash followed a solidarity march called by the All Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur to oppose the demand. The violence has reportedly so far claimed over 70 lives in the state.
The situation in the state has since been tense. The attack on Singh’s house came a day after the death of a 40-year-old man from the Meitei community in violence in the state’s Bishnupur district.
The MP told ThePrint that he was inside the house with his family at the time of the attack. “I had to call Kuldiep Singh, the security advisor to Manipur CM Biren Singh, who has been appointed by the Centre recently, requesting for reinforcement of security personnel,” he said.
Singh said that there is a feeling among the people of the state that the government did not respond as expected to control the violence that erupted on 3 May.
He added that people in the state have a feeling that even Delhi did not respond on time. “But that’s a wrong perception of the common people. The Centre was prompt in sending paramilitary forces,” he said.
Singh alleged that “when the paramilitary forces landed in Manipur, there was a bit of delay in posting them to vulnerable areas. The response of the government (state) was abrupt in the beginning. It should have been worked systematically after thorough threadbare discussion on what action needs to be taken”.
He further claimed that CM Biren Singh himself had confessed in a social media post that there was a delay in response. “That’s how I came to know about it. Otherwise, I did not know. He said there is a lapse in security arrangement,” Singh claimed.
According to the MP, the attack on his house seemed like a “politically motivated organised crime”. “But for what purpose, I still could not find out”.
Singh said that though violent activities during daytime were being controlled by the extra enforcement from the central forces — paramilitary, rapid action force (RAF) — along with state forces, during the night, in the midst of total curfew, a large mob walked to his house unchecked.
“I am inside the compact area of Meitei, I am a Meitei. I do not live in the border area, bordering Kuki. But I do not know how a crowd is created so suddenly by 8:30 pm. Daytime was full of curfew, no one is allowed to move but how this came up is questionable, who mobilised it…,” Singh asked.
Geographically, Manipur is divided into the Hill and Valley areas. The Hill areas comprise 90 per of the total geographical area and are inhabited by broad groups of Naga and Kuki-Chin-Mizo or Zo ethnic tribes. The Valley areas are dominated by the non-tribals or the Meiteis.
The MP also spoke of the tripartite “Suspension of Operations” (SoO) pact, the Kuki demand for separate territorial administration within Manipur and the need for the communities to respect each other.
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The ceasefire pact
The tripartite “Suspension of Operations” (SoO), was signed on 22 August 2008, to initiate political dialogue with tribal insurgent groups operating in the state and to end hostilities and settle demands made by the state’s ethnic Kuki tribals for a separate homeland. In the pact, 25 Kuki insurgent groups were represented by two umbrella bodies — Kuki National Organization (KNO) and United People’s Front (UPF).
As part of the agreement, insurgents who came overground were put up in designated camps, called SoO camps. The camps are regularly inspected by security agencies, under the provisions of the agreement.
Talking about the SoO, Singh said if the pact needs to continue, there should be proper monitoring and proper assessment of it.
“All the militants who are out of the camps should be called back and there should be a thorough inspection to see if the number of weapons deposited in the safe rooms are there. If there are arms and ammunition inside the camp that are not listed, their source should be traced,” he said.
The MP added that since the central paramilitary forces and RAF personnel are there in Manipur, they have to be properly deployed and all vulnerable areas have to be protected.
“The violence should be controlled. That’s the first thing. Then the unified command has to be activated properly. Both the central armed force and state force has to be unified and action has to be taken up,” he said.
Separate territorial administration will not serve any purpose
Singh also spoke about the demand by Kuki MLAs for a separate territorial administration for the community within the boundary of Manipur.
According to the MP, a separate territorial administration will not serve any purpose, as it “will create another internal dynamism. It will be more conflicting and it will affect our national security”.
He added: “I think that may be because of emotion or sentiment, there might have been demand (for a separate administration), but they should think about it many times. Not only the Kuki-Chin family, other groups of our communities in the hills should also think about it.”
A separate administrative zone will surely be a hurdle, added Singh.
“Resources will be controlled by a community. And that cannot be shared with the national asset.. so economically it will not support our national policy and the development of the region won’t happen with the speed and scale required,” he reasoned.
He added that of the total geographical area of Manipur, hardly eight per cent is treated as a Valley. More than 92 per cent is the Hills. And eight per cent of the Valley is concentrated with a population of more than 60 per cent [the Meiteis].
“They [Kukis] are talking about power sharing, but it is not feasible. Valley people did not decide that there will be 40 MLAs from the [non-tribal] Valley. It is as per the electoral principle based on population. In the hills, the population size is very, very small,” he said.
Singh added: “Right from the formation of the state, we are all the same community, same people, same sharing of history, same sharing of economic reforms. That has to be restored. Golden Manipur should be restored as soon as possible through peaceful dialogue.”
State govt not doing enough to check infiltration
The MP further said that the CM Biren Singh government’s crackdown on poppy cultivators in the state should not be seen as targeting a particular community.
Kukis have opposed the state government’s action since February to evict alleged encroachers cultivating poppy in reserved forests in the hills. Since the hills are dominated by the Kuki and Zomi tribes, the action of the state government was seen by these communities as targeting them.
“Of course, Biren Singh as CM suddenly started this. We should have first sensitised the people. Also, the government could have thought of some alternative livelihood for those cultivating poppies,” Singh conceded.
The MoS claimed that there were reports that about 10 per cent of drug production from the Golden Triangle (Myanmar, Laos and Thailand) had shifted to Manipur and in about 16,000 sq km of area on the Indo-Myanmar border, people — from Manipur’s ethnic tribal communities and Nepalis — are mostly engaged in poppy cultivation.
“Earlier Manipur was the route for trafficking drugs, now it has become the hub for production,” he claimed.
Singh also called out the state government for not doing enough to check the alleged infiltration happening from Myanmar. “What is the government doing when they are entering the state? There have to be some regulations,” he said.
Need for communities to respect each other
On the Kukis’ charges that the tribal people were being segregated from the non-tribal Meiteis, Singh said that being a representative of the central government, he cannot classify people as Meitei, Kuki or other tribes.
“I see the whole population in the state as one. There are about 34-35 ethnic communities in the state. Not only Kuki, there are many. So we have to look harmoniously and we have to respect each other,” he said.
Singh said that the first and foremost thing at present was to control the violence. “The fire has to be extinguished. Now the fire is on,” he said.
Secondly, the government should think of those in the relief camp, set up in the aftermath of the violence. “How long will people be in the relief camp? The rescued people are facing a lot of hardship. There is no separate arrangement for males and females. There is no separate washroom, health facility is not there, and even drinking water is not there. For how long can people live like this?”
The MP said that the children of those rescued have stopped going to school. “Both communities have lost much in the violence. It is time for all political parties in the state to sit together and form a peace committee to discuss the grievances of the people. This will help address their misunderstanding,” he said.
Singh said that now was the right time to initiate dialogue between the two communities. “Both sides know what is the damage, the trauma… So, it’s the right time, the need of the hour. Manipur has 2000 years of civilisation. This civilisation is the product of effort of all our community who have been residing here for long. How can you break down this civilization?” he questioned.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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