BY THE EDITOR
It is going to be five months in the next few days since unprecedented ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur, and there is no sign yet of peace returning to the frontier state in the immediate future. The conflict between the majority Meiteis, who inhabit the valley, and Kukis, who live in the hills, has so far claimed 176 lives of members of both the communities and has displaced nearly 70,000 people who are now taking shelter in relief camps and even escaped to other states, mostly in bordering Mizoram. As things stand today, the divide between the valley and the hills is absolute and virtually irreconciliable, thanks particularly to the inept handling of the situation by the state government that has been exacerbated by a seemingly indifferent central government – a classic case of two ‘engines’ working in perfect unison placing no premium on the free-flowing blood on the streets.
Yet, some would have hoped that peace might just be in the air after the state government decided to lift the ban on mobile Internet on September 23, 143 days after it was imposed on May 3; it did not take too long for the balloon to burst, though. On September 25, photographs of two murdered Meitei students surfaced on social media sending the state, particularly Imphal Valley, into yet another spiral of protests and eventual clashes between protesters – this time involving primarily hundreds of school and college students – and security forces. The government’s action was swift as it is when such outbreaks occur, and Internet was suspended once again. The photographs showed the two uniformed students – Phijam Hemjit (20) and Hijam Linthoingambi (17) – in apparent captivity of militants after being abducted, and their lifeless bodies. The incident had happened in early July, but became public knowledge as soon as Internet was restored on September 25; the emergence of the latest photographs on the Internet may not be the last given the scale of violence the state has witnessed, but the fact remains that blaming Internet would not help.
The latest bout of violence has once again prompted the opposition Congress to direct its salvo against the Centre and, more so, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party’s general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra correctly observed that the children are the most vulnerable and it is our duty to protect them, but, instead, the horrific crimes in the state have been allowed to continue unabated and that the central government should be ashamed of its inaction. According to government reports, about 12,000 school students have been affected by the ongoing unrest, half of whom are now sheltering in relief camps in the state while about 1,500 have taken refuge in Mizoram. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has slammed the prime minister for not finding time to visit Manipur and asking him to sack Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ‘incompetent Chief Minister.’ Modi has been stubbornly quiet over Manipur, speaking only twice – once after the first video of women being paraded naked and molested surfaced saying he was “angry” and thereafter during the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition to ensure a discussion took place over the violence. That is too little.