New Delhi: Manipur is now “partitioned” through “population transfers”, 10 Kuki MLAs have informed Union home minister Amit Shah, accusing the N. Biren Singh-led BJP government and the police of being “communalised” and of being behind the “pogrom”
of Kuki tribals.
The legislators, including eight from the BJP, have also accused CM Biren Singh of “patronising” radicalised stormtroopers and can no longer “imagine resettling in the Imphal valley” where “their lives are no longer safe”.
The group of MLAs, which also included Leptao Haokip, the only Kuki minister in the Biren Singh government, told Shah that the only logical way forward is setting up a separate administration for Kuki-inhabited hills, ThePrint has learnt.
The MLAs handed over a three-page memorandum to Shah, where they have said how the recent institutionalised ethnic cleansing and atrocities committed by the majority Meitei community against the ethnic Kuki-Chin-Mizo-Zomi-Hmar minority community has left everyone aghast.
According to a source, Shah met the Kuki leaders Monday after his meeting with the Manipur chief minister and four of his Cabinet colleagues besides BJP state president A. Sharda Devi and Rajya Sabha MP Sanajaoba Leishemba Sanajaoba, the titular king of Manipur Sunday to discuss the situation after ethnic clashes that broke out between the Kukis and the Meiteis.
The Kuki MLAs requested the home minister to “seriously consider” an appropriate mechanism for administrative separation of the two communities.
Though tension between the tribals and non-tribals have been simmering for a while, violence erupted on 3 May following a solidarity march called by the All-Tribal Students’ Union Manipur to oppose the demand to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the non-tribal Meitei community. As of now, the tribal groups including the Chin, Kuki, Zomi, Mizo, Hmar and Nagas enjoy ST status in Manipur.
While the death toll has crossed 60, Manipur remains under curfew although authorities are giving relaxations in some districts. The state government has extended the suspension on internet services till 20 May.
”The home minister wanted to apprise himself of the situation on the ground. He told both the parties — the CM and his four Cabinet colleagues and the Kuki MLAs to work together to restore peace and normalcy in the state,” a government source privy to the meeting told ThePrint.
The MLAs have written in the memorandum that it is a ground reality now that Manipur is partitioned. “Huge population transfers between the Valley and the hills inhabited by the Kuki-Chin-Mizo-Zomi-Hmar had occurred. There are no tribals left in the Imphal Valley. There are no Meiteis left in the hills. The Government of Manipur and its police machinery were communalised and used in the pogrom against the Kuki tribal,” the memorandum states.
In a statement released Friday, Manipur Director General of Police (DGP) P. Doungel wrote: “This is to clarify that there is no such action taken by the government or from any quarter. All the Kuki/Meitei Policemen right from DGP to the lowest rank, whether in Khaki or in Green, are all performing their duties to their best wherever they are assigned.”
‘Clear cut partition’
The MLAs further highlighted how Kuki colonies and houses were marked and attacked with precision in Imphal city. “The survey and mapping had been done a couple of years earlier by radicalised Meitei stormtroopers now revealed as Arambai Tenggol and Meetei Leepun. There is photo-evidence of such regiments being patronised by the chief minister N Biren Singh and the Meitei Maharaja and Member of Parliament, Leishemba Sanajaoba,” the memorandum alleged.
The Kuki MLAs said that the mob violence was pre-meditated. “All Kuki police officers from the DG/Additional DGP/Joint DG down to the constables were stripped of all powers, disarmed and rendered inactive much prior to the 3rd of May, while Meitei police were let loose upon Kuki residents of the city as well as of the foothill villages on the 3rd of May and thereafter. As a result of the backlash in the hill areas, all Meitei police staff have abandoned their post in all the hill stations,” the MLAs wrote.
The Kukis, who are dominant in the hill areas, were also opposed to the government’s action since February to evict encroachers cultivating poppies in reserved forest. The state government’s action was seen by the tribal Kuki-Zomi groups as targeted against them.
The Kuki MLAs also noted that there is a “clear cut partition” between the tribal/Kuki hills and the Meitei dominated Imphal valley. “Our people have lost faith in the Manipur government and can no longer imagine resettling in the valley where their lives are no longer safe. The Meiteis hate us and do not respect us,” the memorandum states.
They added that in the prevailing circumstances, there is now a need for formalisation of the separation through the setting up of a separation of administration for the hills. “We cannot live together anymore. The only logical way forward is to live separately and with time perhaps some semblance of peace and mutual regard and respect for each other on equal terms may return,” they said.
The same group of MLAs, which also includes two from the Kuki Peoples’ Alliance, an ally of BJP, had also issued a press statement last Friday seeking from the central government a “separate administration under the Constitution of India and live peacefully as neighbours with the state of Manipur”.
This report has been updated to include a statement from Manipur Police.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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