Rivalries mar Manipur

The killing of six personnel of the 29 Assam Rifles last month comes as a painful reminder about the chaos and lawlessness Manipur has been descending into in the last few years. That the harrowing ambush was executed about a year after the killing of 18 soldiers of the 6 Dogra Regiment on June 4, 2015, in the same district of Chandel bordering Myanmar reflects the level of activity and control that armed underground groups exercise in this already battered state. It is also a grim indication about how Indian national media and leaders consider a tiny state like Manipur newsworthy only when it comes to the killing of its jawans guarding the frontier region. Seen from the margins of a Nation-state, both geographically and culturally, State violence and militarisation of the region on one hand, and the violence perpetuated by non-State actors on the other leave no room for governance and development.

Manipur has the record of being the state with the highest number of bandhs, blockades and total shutdowns in the country. There is a mushrooming of Joint Action Committees (JAC) for every issue — ranging from rape cases, justice for victims killed by security forces, to demands for a new administrative sub-division — with a free license to dictate bandhs in any part of the state. Due to an ineffective state machinery, people have no faith in the due process of law and therefore take to the streets for every demand and issue. The ethnic cleavages and hardening of positions on all sides, coupled with the unwillingness to imagine a political society beyond one’s narrow confines of community and territory add to the growing unrest. There are more than 33 tribes and 40 armed groups in a state of 2.7 million. And the numbers keep on increasing every year. Shrinking economic opportunities and competition for jobs have accentuated the mistrust and rivalry to a level which influences political demands and election outcomes.

In September 2015, the state assembly passed three controversial bills to tackle the issue of influx of ‘outsiders’. This was opposed by tribal bodies who claimed that it infringes on the existing Constitutional safeguards guaranteed to them under Article 371C. It is seen as a concerted attempt by the dominant Meitei community to grab their lands. The protests against the bills led to the death of nine innocent tribals in Churachandpur district on the intervening night of August 31-September 1, 2015. Local tribal groups have named them ‘martyrs’ in the struggle for safeguarding their land rights. Their dead bodies remain unburied till date even after 250 days for lack of a consensus between the state government and the tribal groups. By custom, tribals bury their dead at the earliest possible, usually within 24 hours. This disruption of their custom makes inhabitants of Lamka in Churachandpur district unable to carry on their normal activities. Knowing there are dead bodies which remain unburied in their midst, Christmas festivities were called off for perhaps the first time in the town’s history last year. Incapable of making sense of this digression, a people in mourning for over 250 days with no solution in sight, the tribals are a distraught lot and frustration levels are high.

While the nation is oblivious to the death of the nine tribals, the six personnel from the Assam Rifles killed in an ambush by CoreCom became the nation’s martyrs. Their sacrifice at the frontiers of the nation’s political imagination is enough reason to seek immediate inquiry and redress. Whether it will involve surgical strikes as in the case of last year is not known yet. This much is clear that the government is taking this seriously.

Formed in 2011, CoreCom — a conglomerate of six valley-based armed groups including United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) — is believed to be responsible for the attacks on Indian security forces last year killing 18 jawans of the 6 Dogra Regiment and also for the incident, which resulted in the death of 6 AR personnel. Before 2011, valley-based armed groups were responsible for the rape of 21 Hmar tribal women in Tipaimukh district in 2006 and also for planting landmines in tribal district of Chandel in 2007. According to a press release from the Joint Action Committee (JAC) Against Anti-Tribal Bills on January 2, 2016, during a meeting with the government on the issue of the three bills, the chief minister is reported to have admitted that there are difficulties in ‘meeting the demands of the tribal representatives since the three Anti-Tribal Bills were passed due to pressures from CorCom’. 

On the other hand, the state has been responsible for a number of human rights abuses and violence. A corrupt bureaucracy and lack of political will for decades have resulted in weak governance, thereby making the role of the military more significant. The Indian military and paramilitary forces, apart from engaging in counter-insurgency operations, are involved in community work, building roads, maintaining communication lines, sponsoring beauty queen contests and donating computers to schools. This dependency on the military for civilian works gets aggravated in the shadow of a negligent state government. This cycle perpetuates and heightens the military’s importance in the region and also for the state government to rely on it for many basic services. The team that got ambushed was incidentally returning after inspecting a landslide following torrential rains which cut off connection with some villages.

To bring an end to this violence in the region, the Indian government must move beyond its military-managed development approach and bring about a political settlement to the issue. Both development-centric and military-centric approaches are found to increase intense rivalry and animosity between communities in the absence of a proper political solution. This further divides society along ethnic lines and other forms of loyalties. With the Naga Accord on the cards, the tribals in the state — both Nagas and Zo groups under UPF/KNO — are likely to arrive at a political settlement of some sort, the details of which are not yet out. Likewise, the government must also bring the valley-based armed groups to the negotiation table in order to bring lasting peace in the state and region.

Along with the demand for Inner Line Permit (ILP), sections of the Meitei community are demanding for inclusion into Scheduled Tribe (ST) list. BJP party’s impressive performance in Assam polls was largely played on the cards of illegal migrants and the promise of ST inclusion for several communities. With election slated for Manipur in early 2017, it’s on the cards for BJP to replicate Assam’s success. A helpless Congress both at the Centre and state will make all attempts to tighten its grip. Whether BJP plays the serious role of bringing peace and development in the state by initiating political dialogues with all armed groups, or further polarise the public with the threat of an ‘outsider takeover’ and promise of ST inclusion, will be crucial in deciding the future of the state. A response in the form of a surgical strike into Myanmar in the aftermath of last year’s June attack will only feed the nationalistic feelings of the Indian middle class. Manipur’s problems will persist and deteriorate at the expense of the army winning hearts in mainland India. Manipur cannot be sacrificed at the altar of India’s jingoistic nationalism for transient outcomes. It deserves careful and sincere steadfastness from India and all stakeholders in the state to solve her many problems.

The author is a journalist from Manipur