New Delhi:

Nothing is more important than ensuring the rule of law and disarming all armed groups in violence-hit Manipur to bring peace, former Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court Siddharth Mridul said at an event in Delhi on Tuesday.

To a question by NDTV over reports that some civil society organisations are threatening internally displaced people, or IDPs, from returning to whatever is left of their homes to rebuild them with government support and security, Justice Mridul said, “The IDPs are not their [some organisations’] hostages. Let’s be clear.”

“They can return home provided we create an environment conducive to their returning home, which brings us back to the rule of law. Once law and order are restored and there is a rule of law, and groups have been disarmed of all the illegal weapons that they possess, either looted or smuggled, and there are talks under the auspices of the government, that’s the only way forward, external factors apart because I am keen on Manipur. I am sure there are external factors, but I am not an expert on that,” said Justice Mridul, who served as Manipur High Court Chief Justice from October 2023 till his retirement last month.

At least 50,000 people from both the valley-dominant Meitei community and over a dozen distinct tribes collectively known as Kuki, who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, have been displaced since ethnic clashes began between the two in May 2023.

The Kuki tribes also include ‘Any Kuki Tribes’, which was added to the Scheduled Tribes’ (ST) list in 2003 when the Congress was in power in the state, led by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

Justice Mridul repeated what the Supreme Court said in November 2023 about “keeping the pot boiling”, while hearing a court-appointed committee’s report that flagged troubling actions by civil society organisations that contributed to keeping ethnic tensions simmering in Manipur.

“… The reason why I believe that there is somebody interested in keeping the pot boiling is that every time the situation seems to be normalising, there is a fresh injection of violence, which leads me to believe that there are forces – and if I were to believe the General, the forces are external, not internal. Even if the forces are external, they do have collaborators locally who ensure that the agenda of keeping Manipur burning is pursued vigorously,” Justice Mridul said, referring to a presentation by Major General Rajan Kochhar (retired) at the Delhi event.

“I am beginning to subscribe to the idea that there does seem to be an invisible hand. Whose hand is it is not clear to me yet. There could be a number of factors at play,” he said.

Justice Mridul had worked closely with the state authorities while he was in Manipur. He said though there have been periods of absence of violence, at no stage since May last year has normalcy ever been restored in Manipur.

“… You must understand the separation of powers. My interaction with the executive was purely to ensure that the judiciary was able to discharge its function. These are not political discussions, they can never be political discussions. But the impression I gathered was that – I may be wrong, I may be terribly wrong – nobody seems to be in command of the vessel,” he said.

“The point is that till such time there is disarmament, till the time that the weapons that were looted, snatched, whatever, are recovered, and till the time people with arms smuggled from across the border are intercepted and the weapons are taken from them, there is no possibility of peace returning to Manipur,” Justice Mridul said. “Armed people are not going to permit you either to return to your homes or live peacefully.”

“Trust Is Important”: Major General Rajan Kochhar (Retired)

Major General Kochhar said trust is the most important factor to normalise Manipur.

“Without trust, there will be all kinds of forces – you can call them internal, you can call them external – who will increase the divide. After I have listened to everybody here. Everybody agrees that there should be peace there. How this peace has to be brought about is the big question,” said Major General Kochhar, VSM, who retired after 37 years of service.

“A large number of people have come from Myanmar to Manipur… It is very important for the local community to identify militants among the civilians. It is the responsibility of the community. Unless we do that, we are creating buffer zones within our own state. That cannot happen. A buffer zone is created between two countries that are at war to prevent that war from escalating. Golan Heights, Syria, there was a buffer zone. Lebanon, the Blue Line, there was a buffer zone… How can you have a buffer zone within your own state and restrict the movement of people from one place to another? That is the larger question which I think both the communities need to answer,” Major General Kochhar said.

Dr Arambam Noni, an associate professor at Imphal-based DM University and one of the speakers at the Delhi event, further extended his comment on the “untenable and obsolete demand” of an ethnocentric homeland which he made at a side event of the 57th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva in early October.

Ethnocentric Homeland

“Ethnopolitical leaders are playing a dangerous game. They want to end overlapping spaces. When they end overlapping spaces in a state like Manipur inhabited by 35 officially recognised communities, some of which only have a population of 600 or 1,000 people, their existence is under threat. If we allow to end these overlapping spaces, they only aim to increase the demand for ethnocentric political spaces. And that is very, very dangerous. We’d be setting a very dangerous precedence by favouring an ethnocentric homeland because the Constitution does not really acknowledge the possibility of ethnocentric homelands,” Dr Noni said.

He said the question of whether the modern state can afford to allow the incessant movement of population across borders in the name of culture, or can the modern state accommodate them, needs an answer.

“Do you have a mechanism in the modern state system to accommodate these free-flowing movements of population, not only for cultural solidarities but also for territorial solidarity? That’s problematic. I think modern states normally do not have any such mechanism to deal with these continued, territorial trespassing of identities because modern states basically stand on fixed territoriality and sovereignty. What is happening in northeast India is the porousness of the fixed idea of a State.

“I don’t see any problem in the cultural transition of people across borders. But I see a problem in the continual reconciliation of identities for ethnocentric homelands. That of course will create a conflict with overlapping spaces like Manipur, which is a multicultural state. Having said this, I think our problem is very, very complex. The weaponisation of identity is not good because micro-identities are increasingly feeling threatened. That part must be acknowledged. The media or the academic society must not get trapped in binaries that they believe… because there are other aspects of our social world, and we must also acknowledge the resources that can unite people, not divide people.

No Comfortable Life In Relief Camps

“Institutions need to be democratised. There should be fair development and redistribution of resources… The other suggestion that I want to make is – as Justice Mridul has already said – that you must allow IDPs to return home because that’s their fundamental right. You cannot give them a comfortable life in relief camps,” Dr Noni said at the panel discussion ‘Understanding the Barriers of Northeast India and Manipur Violence: The Way Forward’, organised by TMP Manipur, Meitei Alliance, and Manipur International Youth Centre.

This is the second winter the internally displaced people in Manipur are spending in relief camps.

The 10 MLAs of the Kuki tribes and the Zo people and their civil society groups have said talks are not possible unless Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh quits. The Kuki tribes also blame him for allegedly starting the Manipur crisis; they have reinforced this allegation with the leaked tapes controversy.

Kuki leaders have demanded a political solution in the form of a separate administration before any other issues, including the return of thousands of people living in relief camps, can be discussed.

Meitei leaders have cited this condition to allege that Kuki leaders are engineering an ethnocentric homeland demand; the Meitei leaders’ argument is talks can go on while at the same time people living in difficult conditions in the camps can also return home since no territory is ethnic exclusive.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley districts.

The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram have cited discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis as some of the reasons behind their call for separation.

Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh today alleged “some agencies” have been sending “manipulated” information about the violence-hit state to New Delhi. He said the Centre is aware of the matter and is collecting information from the grassroots.

“Misinformation, manipulative and politicised information were sent by some agencies to New Delhi. Now, the Centre has realised it. It is collecting information from the grassroots. They have found correct information and they are dealing with it,” Mr Singh said on the sidelines of an event in the state capital Imphal today.

The chief minister did not say which agencies gave “wrong information” to the Centre.

7 Arrested For Killing 2 Migrant Labourers

In another development, seven insurgents of the Kangleipak Communist Party (People’s War Group), or KCP(PWG), have been arrested for killing two migrant labourers from Bihar. The original KCP is among the eight Meitei insurgent groups in the Home Ministry’s list of banned organisations.

The seven are being interrogated, sources in the state intelligence said.

The KCP(PWG) is likely being used as “hired guns” to attack civilians and carry out extortion in the valley areas in order to keep tension simmering, top intelligence sources told NDTV based on initial investigation.

They declined to say who hired these insurgents to create terror in the valley areas, citing the investigation is in an early stage.

Both Mr Singh and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have condemned the killings of the migrant labourers in Kakching, 45 km from Imphal, and announced ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for each family, respectively.

The two young men, Sunalal Kumar, 18, and Dasharat Kumar, 17, were shot dead allegedly by the KCP(PWG) insurgents while they were cycling back to their rented accommodation from their work site.

The Centre on November 14 reimposed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or AFSPA, to protect security forces in hostile areas in six new locations in ethnic violence-hit Manipur.

The six police station areas included Jiribam, where 10 suspected Kuki militants were shot dead in an encounter with the security forces on November 11, and from where three women and three children from the Meitei community were kidnapped and killed by suspects who the Manipur government called “Kuki militants”.

The AFSPA gives sweeping powers to the military to operate freely anywhere that has been declared a “disturbed area”; no military personnel in an area where AFSPA is in force can be prosecuted without the Centre’s permission.

The Manipur government had requested the Centre to remove AFSPA from the six police station areas.

The AFSPA reimposition gave more room to the security forces to freely engage armed groups that have not signed any ceasefire deal with the government.

Before this, 19 police station areas in Manipur were not under AFSPA coverage as they were considered peaceful. The escalation in violence in Jiribam, however, brought the controversial law back to the six police station areas.

Imphal/Guwahati:

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and other leaders have condemned the attack on the house of a BJP spokesperson from the Thadou tribe in the state’s Churachandpur district.

Over two dozen people, some of them armed, had vandalised the house of the state BJP spokesperson T Michael Lamjathang Haokip on Sunday night. They fired shots in the air and set two rooms on fire, Mr Haokip had said, adding no one was injured. Four families displaced by the violence in Manipur also live in four small structures at his family plot, he said.

“The attack carried out on the family members of Michael Lamjathang, a leader of the Thadou community, the oldest among the ethnic tribes of Manipur, as well as a BJP spokesperson by vandalising his house was an act of cowardice,” the Chief Minister said in a post on X.

“I consider this personal harm being put on one of our recognised tribes as a direct challenge to the unity and integrity of the state,” Mr Singh said. “Attacks on any particular community of the recognised tribes of Manipur, as well as the attack on the family of the BJP spokesperson are condemned in the strongest terms. We will initiate appropriate legal action against the culprits,” he said.

The attack carried out on the family members of Micheal Lamjathang a leader of the Thadou community, the oldest among the ethnic tribes of Manipur, as well as a BJP spokesperson by vandalizing his house was an act of cowardice.

I consider this personal harm being put on one of…

— N. Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) August 26, 2024

State minister Govindas Konthoujam said the attack on Mr Haokip exposed “the mentality of those who, unable to engage in logical debate, resort to violence.” “… This cowardly act of violence against his home and family is not just an assault on an individual, but on the entire Thadou community and our civilization,” the seven-time MLA from Bishnupur said in a post on X.

1/2 I strongly condemn the barbaric attack on Thadou student leader & BJP Manipur Spokesperson Michael Lamjathang Haokip in Peniel village, Churachandpur. This cowardly act of violence against his home & family is not just an assault on an individual, but on the

— Govindas Konthoujam (@KonthoujamG) August 26, 2024

Mr Haokip on Tuesday said he has been raising awareness about his tribe, Thadou, being inaccurately referred to as a Kuki tribe amid the ethnic tension in Manipur. He said it was the second time his house in Churachandpur was attacked, allegedly by some people who do not accept the Thadou tribe’s distinct identity.

“Around 30 people barged in at 10.30 pm. They poured kerosene on the walls and burned two rooms. They also fired many rounds in the air to scare our neighbours and other residents in the neighbourhood,” Mr Haokip told NDTV. “Everybody in the area is angry at the attackers,” he said.

Mr Haokip belongs to the family of a Thadou tribe village chief, under whose area some 70 families live in as many houses. Apart from their main family house, there are four small structures on the plot where people displaced by the ethnic violence are living.

“The attackers also threatened the displaced people to leave,” Mr Haokip said.

The attack at the Churachandpur house of the BJP spokesperson from the Thadou tribe comes days after three MLAs from among the 10, who have been demanding a separate administration carved out of Manipur, clarified that they want their own tribes to be called by their correct names, instead of being associated only with the term “Kuki-Zo”.

On social media, the three MLAs have received threats of boycott and other “consequences” for allegedly weakening the Kuki tribes’ resolve to persuade the Centre to create a separate administration. One of the BJP MLAs told NDTV everyone should feel free to state facts about the tribe they belong to. “I fail to understand why threats are coming my way for simply saying to which tribe I and the people I represent belong,” the leader told NDTV, requesting anonymity.

Mr Haokip is also a leadership team member of the Manipur-based Thadou Students’ Association (TSA) and the newly formed Thadou Community International, or TCI, a global body with professionals from the Thadou tribe living in nine countries including the US, the UK, Norway, Australia, and Malaysia, among others, as members. The TCI in a statement said the attack happened barely a few hours after Mr Haokip participated in a panel discussion in local media on the topic ‘Kuki supremacy and its agenda.’

“It was also an incident due to the fallout of relentless attacks on Thadou community and Thadou leaders by the Churachandpur-based Kuki supremacist-made fake Thadou Tribe Council (TTC), who have been actively engaging in disinformation campaign and violent rhetoric against Thadou, even boasting to know the perpetrators of the violent attack on Michael Lamjathang’s home last year,” the TCI said.

On August 5, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had met representatives of several small tribes and heard their concerns about bigger tribes trying to suppress their identities.

During the discussion and voting on demands for grants on the last day of the Manipur assembly session on August 12, the Chief Minister had said “violence was perpetrated by some, not all, people.”

“Not every Thadou, Paite, Hmar had a hand in the violence. You have seen, Hmar people spoke so well (in the peace meeting), we had tears, they too had tears, that all this happened due to misunderstandings,” Mr Singh said, referring to the August 1 peace meeting between Meitei and the Hmar tribe representatives in Jiribam, where they agreed to work for normalcy nearly two months after ethnic violence that began over a year ago reached the district bordering Assam.