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It was on 20th July that the Horrific video of two women being paraded Naked in Manipur was released on twitter. Soon, it sent shockwaves all around the country to such an extent that Our Prime Minister who isn’t a big believer in press meets or gatherings, had to a give a statement condemning the shameful incident. His statements were an understatement to the kind of anger and rage that was fueling inside each and every Indian.
But what led to those individuals in Manipur behave like savages. Why did they parade two women naked, rape them and completely annihilated any human nature within them! Why did they stoop to such unbearable acts of inhumanity with traces of devil in all of them.
Origins of the Manipur riots
The roots of these violence go back to the month of May, when on the 3rd of May,
the Manipur High Court had ordered the Central Government to consider including the Meiti Community in the Schedule Tribes list. Due to this order, the All-Tribal Students Union of Manipur had organized a Solidarity march. But soon things took a turn for the worse as violence broke out on the 4th of May. Due to this the central government had to impose Article 355 of the constitution and the Army, Assam Rifles and Rapid Action force were all being called upon and deployed in order to calm the situation.
Misinformation through Social-Media
One of the reasons why the Locals went on to commit such a gruesome act, was due to the fact that a fake photo was circulated and was doing rounds in the social media. The Photo had stated that a girl from their community had been gangraped and killed in Churchandpur. Whereas, the photo was that of a girl from Delhi. But once the picture was circulated it created Panic all around and the villagers started burning the rival community villages.
Homes were burnt down and properties were vandalised during this rampage. The groups are believed to be associated with Meitei groups. During the chaos of the attack, five villagers, including two men and three women, managed to escape to the safety of the nearby forest. They were later rescued by the Nongpok Sekmai Police team, but while being taken to the police station, the mob kidnapped them, subjecting them to further torment. One of the men was killed immediately by the ruthless mob. The three women were forced to strip naked, as detailed in the FIR. One of the women, aged 21, was allegedly gang-raped. When her brother, a 19-year-old, attempted to intervene, he was killed.
Negligent Police Action
FIR’s were registered but the Police did not take any action. Almost 2 months went by and it was only after the video went viral and circulated in the social media that the police sprung into action. But why did the police take almost 2 months to take action? Why does the Prime Minister or the Supreme Court need to get involved in every local affair for the administration to sprung into action? The police should be reprimanded and suspended for ignoring such heinous crimes. If the mobs can easily overpower the police what good is the police for!
Neglect from mainstream media
While Manipur is burning the entire media is covering only bits and pieces of the information. Why aren’t major debates being called upon? Why aren’t panelists getting involved and putting their “moralistic views”? Would the media have been this ignorant if these events were happing somewhere near Mumbai, Delhi or in the vicinity of Ahmedabad.
The Media’s response has been of absolute distraught and complete disregard for Manipur.
What Next
As of now it seems Biren Singh (Manipur CM) and his government is finding it really hard to put an end to these riots or mobs. Some of the mobs even have access to automatic guns, all stolen from government armoury. The centre has to answer on why is it allowing Manipur to burn and not calling on President’s rule, as all Biren Singh is doing is paper over cracks.
As usual, during violence and as it has happened historically, women have faced usual sexual violence from Men during conflict where they nothing to do with.
The video only shared a glimpse of the suffering, women in Manipur have been facing for the last three months. The Ball is now in the governments court, whether to take drastic measures and stop this mayhem or keep on letting situation deteriorate. As the ones who have to lose it all are the women and the children who are all but caught in the crossfire.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.
Also Read: No one wants to talk about rapes in Manipur. There’s a silence at the heart of the violence