Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma appealed for the immediate release of all hostages and called for their safety, medical care, food, and communication with families.

Image for the purpose of representation only.
| Photo Credit: File

File photo of Indian Army personnel keeping vigil along the Indo-Myanmar international border.
| Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR

File photo of Kuki tribal groups protesting against Manipur violence.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

Imphal/New Delhi:

The police chief of Manipur’s Kangpokpi district who was injured in protests by members of the Kuki tribes on Friday had been fighting extortionists and pushing back against a call for a meeting “with all police personnel” by a civil society group, intelligence sources told NDTV.

They cited two flash messages sent by Kangpokpi district Superintendent of Police (SP) Manoj Prabhakar – a month apart – to all officers in charge of police stations and outposts in the district, asking them not to give in to demands for money by “unlawful groups” and not to attend a meeting of “all police personnel of Kangpokpi district” called by a Kangpokpi-based Kuki group.

Mr Prabhakar, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who suffered a gash on his forehead amid the protest by members of the Kuki tribes on Friday, sent the first flash message on November 19, ordering all police personnel in Kangpokpi district to guard against extortion attempts by “unlawful groups”, sources who have access to the message told NDTV.

“It is learnt from sources that some unlawful groups are demanding money from Kpi [Kangpokpi] district police. In this regard, it is ordered to instruct your police personnel not to give money to such groups. Any police personnel found partying to such groups will face disciplinary action,” the message sent on November 19 to all officers in charge of police stations and outposts in the district 45 km from the state capital Imphal said.

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Police personnel, especially the junior ranks who live with their families in Kangpokpi, are vulnerable to demand for money by unlawful groups, the sources said, adding the SP was aware of this.

The IPS officer sent the second flash message to all police stations in Kangpokpi on December 19 – a day before a meeting called by a Kuki group – cautioning police personnel against attending the meeting without permission, sources said.

“It is learnt from a msg. being circulated across social media platforms that CoTU (Committee on Tribal Unity) has called all police personnel of Kpi [Kangpokpi] dist. for a meeting on 20th Dec. 2024 at 2:00 PM in Keithelmanbi community hall. In this regard, officers and personnel of all ranks are instructed to not attend the meeting without prior permission. Anyone attending the meeting without prior permission will face disciplinary action,” the SP said in the message, referring to the Kangpokpi-based Kuki group CoTU.

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Protesters from the Kuki tribes had clashed with central security forces in Kangpokpi on Friday night, days after they tried to stop the security forces from dismantling bunkers on the hills. The protesters had been looking to stop transport as part of their economic blockade enforced to demand the withdrawal of central forces from the hills in the district.

When the security forces asked them to fall back, they moved towards the office of the Kangpokpi deputy commissioner and the SP. The security forces responded with tear gas and blank firing. Individuals armed with automatic weapons were also seen out in the roads amid the protesters. The militant organisation Kuki National Front (KNF), which signed the suspension of operations (SoO) agreement with the Centre and the state government, is a dominant group in Kangpokpi.

The SP was hit by some projectile thrown by the mob. Visuals showed blood trickling down his forehead, above the right eyelash.

CoTU on Sunday called off the blockade, marking a temporary pause in over a week of unrest in Kangpokpi district.

Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Saturday ordered the Director General of Police Rajiv Singh to prioritise the safety and security of people. The Governor also told army and paramilitary officers to fully cooperate with the administration in maintaining law and order, officials said.

Extortion In Manipur

The Kangpokpi SP’s message to police personnel to guard against demand for money by “unlawful groups”, however, is symptomatic of a wider problem that has been spreading in recent months.

There has been numerous extortion threats by groups of armed people in Manipur, especially in urban areas such as Imphal city and the district headquarters in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi, sources have said, adding these groups have been taking advantage of the Manipur crisis that have kept the police and the security forces occupied on maintaining peace.

Many shop owners in Imphal, for example, have complained of being forced to pay up by armed people, despite failing businesses due to no economic activity for over a year since ethnic violence began in May 2023 between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the Kuki tribes, who are dominant in the hill areas of southern Manipur bordering Myanmar and some areas in the north.

The news website The Print reported that the Meitei insurgent group United National Liberation Front (UNLF) “reportedly collected lakhs as ‘donations’ from several politicians, according to documents recovered as ‘digital evidence’, now part of a chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate.”

The Manipur Police frequently post updates on X with arrested members of the Arambai Tenggol and Kangleipak Communist Party (People’s War Group), or KCP(PWG), for alleged extortion and threats.

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 on December 16 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.

Manipur Deadlock

Kuki civil society groups such as the Churachandpur-based Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) and the CoTU, and their 10 MLAs have joined the call for a separate administration carved out of Manipur, a demand also made by the nearly two dozen militant groups that have signed the SoO agreement.

This single demand has brought the Kuki militant groups, the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs, and the civil society groups on the same page.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes between the Meitei community and the Kuki tribes have killed over 250 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000.

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 want a separate administration, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

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:

Two elderly men were shot in their legs by unknown armed attackers in Imphal East district on Tuesday night.

Police said that unidentified gunmen attacked the two persons — Takhelchangbam Hemanta (55) and Yengkhom Kesho (56) — at the Kongba river bank under the Heingang police station area.

The unknown armed attackers reportedly arrived at the spot and opened fire on the two men, targeting their legs before fleeing the scene.

The locals who witnessed the attack quickly came to the rescue of the injured individuals.

They were promptly transported to the Imphal East District Police, who took the necessary steps to ensure they received medical attention.

Both the injured were later rushed to Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) In Imphal for medical treatment.

Police are investigating the incident but they have yet to identify the attackers or their motives.

Heingang Police Station has launched a search operation in the area to gather more information and track down those responsible for this violent attack.

Tuesday night violent incident took place after Saturday’s killing of two migrant workers from Bihar.

Manipur police so far arrested eight cadres of the banned Kangleipak Communist Party (People’s War Group) (KCP-PWG) outfit in connection with the killing of two migrant workers — Sunalal Kumar, 18, and Dasharat Kumar, 17.

A cache of arms and ammunition including eight weapons were recovered from the detainees.

Armed militants shot dead the two migrant workers near the panchayat office in Keirak on Kakching-Wabagai Road in Kakching district on Saturday evening when the victims, along with a few others, were going on their bicycles.

Condemning the killing of two migrant workers, Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had announced Rs 10 lakh as an ex-gratia for the kin of each victim.

He said that if required, the case would be transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to ensure a fair and thorough inquiry.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:

Five weeks before the Manipur ethnic clashes began in May 2023, a cabinet subcommittee comprising ministers from the three major communities visited three villages to make an assessment of the situation on “identification of Myanmarese immigrants/refugees”, reports submitted by the subcommittee show.

Tribal Affairs and Hills Minister Letpao Haokip, who belongs to the Kuki tribes, headed the subcommittee, with Water Resources Minister Awangbow Newmai, a Naga, and Law Minister Th Basanta Kumar Singh, a Meitei, as the two other members.

They visited the three villages between March 26, 2023 and April 1, 2023, and met Myanmar nationals – including a Member of Parliament from the neighbouring country – living in community halls under the watch of the village chiefs.

The Kuki tribes in Manipur still follow the archaic hereditary chieftainship system – blamed for power struggles among siblings and mushrooming of villages – which has been abolished even in neighbouring Mizoram where kindred tribes live.

The subcommittee never made subsequent visits after clashes broke out on May 3, 2023 between the Meitei community and over a dozen distinct tribes collectively known as Kuki, who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur.

Subcommittee Chairman Seeks Separate Administration 

Letpao Haokip later joined the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs who went on to demand a separate administration carved out from Manipur. Kuki groups had raised the same demand in 2015 after nine people from their community were killed in police firing during a protest against three controversial bills tabled by the state government, then under the Congress party led by former chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

Meitei leaders say claims by the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs and frontal groups that they raised the demand for a separate administration only after the May 3 violence erupted, was a blatant lie.

By the time the subcommittee began their survey in late March 2023, tension had already permeated Kuki-dominated areas in southern Manipur after the government carried out an eviction drive in Churachandpur’s K Songjang village just a month ago. The subcommittee’s visits to the three villages also coincided with sporadic protests by Kuki groups against what they called illegal eviction from forests.

An NDTV report on June 21, 2023 citing preliminary documents filed by the subcommittee said over 2,000 Myanmar nationals have set up settlements inside Manipur and refused to be moved to designated shelters. They fled from the war between the ruling junta and ethnic insurgent groups claiming to fight for democracy.

The final copies of the subcommittee’s reports complete with visuals of the visit, which NDTV accessed now, show the three leaders repeatedly appealed to the village chiefs to persuade Myanmar nationals to live in designated shelter camps once the structures were ready.

The subcommittee visited Holenphai village in Tengnoupal district on March 26, Gamphazol village in Chandel district on March 29, and Singhat in Churachandpur district on April 1, 2023.

“Shri Letpao Haokip… highlighted the issue of illegal Myanmar nationals into Indian side which cause apprehension amongst general public as there is high chance of getting such immigrants getting naturalised amongst common native population because of similarity in culture and dialect. He further highlighted that even though such cases are not reported, there is apprehension that many of them had already resided in the main Churachandpur town area in rented houses,” the report of the visit to Singhat said.

“Shri Th. Basanta Kumar Singh also appeals to all illegal immigrants to come forward and join the shelter homes, not hiding amongst locals, supporting the humanitarian goodwill gesture extended by the government,” the report of the subcommittee’s visit to Holenphai – the first village they went to on March 26, 2023 – said.

Border Pillars At Gamphazol Village

Chandel district’s Gamphazol village presented a unique problem. The district commissioner said the IMB (Indo-Myanmar Border) falling in Chandel district “is different from other neighbouring districts” as it has a sparsely populated, vast stretch of forest covering 60-75 km between Border Pillar No. 72 and 49.

“It was also suggested that only one temporary shelter may not be feasible to cater [to] all such immigrants along the stretch and as such temporary shelters at Gamphazol in the northern side and Somdal in the Southern side [were proposed],” the report of the subcommittee’s visit to this border village on March 29, 2023 said. The district commissioner said they found 628 “illegal immigrants” along the stretch of IMB falling in Chandel district, out of which 250 were at Gamphazol village.

Subcommittee Meets Myanmar MP Ousted By Junta

In Holenphai, the three ministers met Thamsei Haokip, a Myanmar Member of Parliament before the junta overthrew the government, who told the subcommittee that he would follow all rules and regulations while being a refugee in India and would return to Myanmar once the issue there is “over/settled”, the report said.

“He [Thamsei Haokip] pointed out that due to the military junta in their country, they have come to Manipur being the nearest state of the world’s largest democratic country expecting humanitarian support [to] them at this juncture when civilians cannot stay in Myanmar out of the issue. He appeals to the state government to provide identification cards and to allow/facilitate earning livelihood. He also asserted that they will go back once the issue in Myanmar is settled…”

The foreign MP asked the subcommittee to shift Myanmar nationals earlier detained as illegal immigrants to the proposed shelter homes, and requested not to treat them as illegal immigrants since they fled from the junta rule, where “civilians are being killed”.

An activist from one of the Kuki tribes, who claims to know the Myanmar MP personally, told NDTV that the foreign politician has deep links with the Kuki National Army (Burma), or KNA(B). Thamsei Haokip has taken shelter in a relatively safe, forested area along the India-Myanmar border, the source said, adding it will be a big ask for the Meitei community to trust the likes of Thamsei Haokip due to the precedent set by another Myanmar-origin leader, Thanglianpau Guite.

The Manipur government has blamed unchecked entry of illegal immigrants from Myanmar as one of the factors responsible for the violence. It has also cited “unnatural growth of villages” owing to illegal immigrants being allegedly accommodated by village chiefs.

Precedent Set: Myanmar MP-Turned-Militant Group Leader

Meitei civil society groups are sensitive to any mention of Myanmar-origin leaders in the context of Manipur. Chief Minister N Biren Singh has said this sensitivity is due to the manner in which how Thanglianpau Guite – the “Myanmar-born” politician who contested the MP election in his country and who later became the chairman of the militant group Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) – was welcomed by the then Congress government when P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

The ZRA is a signatory to the controversial suspension of operations (SoO) agreement, which lapsed in February this year.

Over two dozen Kuki-Zo insurgent groups come under two umbrella groups – the Kuki National Organisation (KNO), and the United People’s Front (UPF). These two representing the others have signed the SoO agreement, which says the insurgents are to stay at designated camps with weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly.

Meitei leaders have alleged the SoO groups have been working to strengthen themselves over the years by taking advantage of the ceasefire, until a time came to engineer a violent attack for a separate land. Geopolitical analysts have speculated the Kuki armed groups were used as mercenaries to fight Meitei and Naga militants operating in the India-Myanmar border.

Myanmar’s government-in-exile in a statement in June 2023 – a month into the Manipur clashes – asked its nationals who are “temporarily sheltering” in India “to refrain from any acts that are prejudicial to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.”

The National Unity Government (NUG) in the statement told Myanmar nationals “sheltering” in India and their organisations to avoid unnecessary involvement in India’s politics and administrative activity, and asked them to live in harmony with the host communities. The NUG also appealed to the Myanmar nationals to not get involved in drug trafficking.

The Manipur government on January 18, 2023 announced it would form the subcommittee to identify “Myanmarese immigrants/refugees”; the state government on February 16 announced the composition of the three-member panel, and on March 24 it ordered the police to check the number of Myanmarese immigrants in five districts – Tengnoupal, Chandel, Churachandpur, Pherzawl, and Kamjong.

While the February 16 announcement referred to the subcommittee as one that would work on identifying “Myanmarese immigrants/refugees” in the state, the reports of the subcommittee’s visits referred to them as “illegal immigrants”.

Myanmar Refugees In Mizoram

Neighbouring Mizoram has taken in over 40,000 Myanmar refugees. Mizoram government sources told NDTV on November 10 that it has been nearly three years since the coup in Myanmar, and feeding and taking care of all the displaced people and refugees in a small state as Mizoram remained a huge challenge. There were also concerns over a rise in drug trafficking. The sources said the Mizoram government can’t thank the central government enough for the massive help it has been giving to ensure enough resources are available with the state to tide over the refugee crisis.

“The people of Mizoram are not immune to the strain that all these efforts bring. There is especially a growing dissatisfaction even in our own community, especially from the intellectual circle. Yes, we are welcoming them as brothers and sisters, but what are we getting back in return? We are getting drugs, this and that. So the frustration is growing, obviously,” the source told NDTV.

The Kuki tribes have criticised the Manipur government over not treating Myanmar refugees in a humane way as Mizoram has done.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes have killed over 250 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000. The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kuki tribes want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

New Delhi:

The Congress on Friday called on the Bharatiya Janata Party to respond proactively to protesting farmers’ demands about a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price, or MSP, and warned the government, “Do not allow the farmers of this country to face a situation like Manipur”.

The opposition party also slammed the government for taking the time out to watch a movie – on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, members of his cabinet, and MPs attended a screening of ‘The Sabarmati Report‘, a movie about the 2002 train-burning incident in Gujarat’s Godhra.

“The Modi government has time to watch movies but does not have time to listen to demands of farmers. Prime Minister Modi should talk to the farmers without delay and immediately pass a law on MSP… this is the demand of the Congress,” party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

“The Congress party is with the farmers,” Mr Surjewala said, also taking the opportunity to throw a jab over the extent of security deployed to stop the farmers and the India-China border crisis

“If the three-layer security which has been put in place for the farmers in Haryana had been put in place on the Chinese border, then China would not have occupied the Indian border,” he said.

The reference to, and warning about, Manipur was stark. Nearly 300 people have been killed since ethnic violence broke out between the Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur in May 2023.

The Congress and other opposition parties have been fiercely critical of the handling of the crisis by BJP, which is also in power in Manipur, and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this issue.

The BJP has not yet responded to this round of attacks by the Congress.

The Manipur warning came on a day when a group of 101 farmers began a ‘Dilli chalo’ march to press home a list of nearly five-year-old demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP.

READ | 8 Farmers Injured In Tear Gas Shelling, Protest March Over MSP Halted

The march, from Shambhu on the Haryana-Punjab border, began at 1 pm but ran immediately into fortified, multi-layered police barricades across National Highway 44.

In the clashes that followed, police fired tear gas shells to disperse the protesters. Eight people were injured, and two others seriously wounded, according to farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher.

Visuals shared by news agency IANS showed chaotic scenes at a police barricade across National Highway 44. In the 73-second video white tear gas smoke enveloped protesting farmers.

Ambala, Haryana: Police fired tear gas shells at the protesters pic.twitter.com/3sCa9haqT5

— IANS (@ians_india) December 6, 2024

As the video pans out, rolls of barbed wire can also be seen and the gassed farmers are seen pulling back. An elderly farmer, affected by the tear gas, is attended to by fellow-protesters.

Beaten back for the day, the farmers said they would not admit defeat but would give the government 24 hours to reach out to them with a proposition to address their concerns.

The farmers – lakhs of whom have been protesting since September 2020, when the Modi government passed three farm law that were severely criticised and later rolled back – also lamented the action taken against them. “Modiji cannot justify the actions against us. We are deeply hurt.”

“If our protest is allowed inside Delhi… I will ask, ‘Why are we treated as enemies?’ Punjabis and Haryanvis saved the country from hunger,” Pandher said.

Shortly before the march began, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told Parliament the Narendra Modi government is committed to purchasing farmers’ produce at MSP.

“I want to assure the House… all produce of farmers will be purchased at Minimum Support Price. This is the Modi government and (we will) fulfil Modiji‘s guarantee,” Mr Chouhan said, also taking the opportunity for a dig at the Congress, referring to his “friends from the other side”.

“…they said, on record, they cannot accept the MS Swaminathan Commission recommendations… especially on paying 50 per cent more than cost price,” he said, declaring the government is already buying paddy, wheat, jowar, soyabean at 50 per cent over cost of production from three years ago.

Today’s protest was meant to press home farmers’ longstanding demands for a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price, waiver of farm loans, and protection from increased electricity tariffs.

NDTV Explains | Centre’s 5-Year MSP Plan, And Why Farmers Are Not Convinced

The demand for legal backing for MSPs – which refers to a priced fixed by the government to protect farmers from a steep fall in crop prices; for example, during a bumper crop when prices plummet – a has been a core ask of protests that began in September 2020.

MSPs, however, have no legal backing, meaning the government is not obliged to buy, for example, 10 per cent of a farmer’s paddy crop at the floor price. And it is this that the farmers want changed.

With input from agencies

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Imphal/Aizawl:

Manipur Rajya Sabha MP Maharaja Sanajaoba Leishemba criticised his Mizoram counterpart K Vanlalvena for suggesting a “separate administrative area” for the Kuki tribes to resolve the ethnic conflict.

Mr Leishemba, who is from the BJP, in a post on X warned Mr Vanlalvena against “crossing the line” and asked him to refrain from interfering in Manipur’s internal issues.

“My friend, Don’t cross the line. Please confine in your state issues. Stop interferences in Manipur’s issues. Be a good neighbour,” Mr Leishemba said in the post.

My friend,
Don’t cross the line..
Please confine in your state issues..
Stop interferences in Manipur ‘s issues..
Be a good neighbour..@VanlalvenaKpic.twitter.com/5JUMn451bV

— Maharaja Sanajaoba Leishemba. (@MaharajaManipur) November 24, 2024

Mr Vanlalvena, an MP of BJP ally Mizo National Front (MNF), had told reporters that the President’s rule in Manipur is needed as the “first and immediate step” to solve the violence, and also the creation of a “separate administrative” for Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribes.

The Mizoram MP had said President’s Rule would give an opportunity for the Centre to deal with the Manipur situation comprehensively and demarcate areas where the Meitei community and the Kuki tribes live.

Mr Vanlalvena called for the separate administrative units, citing the deep divide between the two ethnic groups.

“After the violence broke out, the tribal (Kukis) people unable to go to Imphal and the valley areas, and the people belonging to the Meitei community no longer dare to enter the hilly regions,” Mr Vanlalvena had said, adding President’s rule and separate administrations for the Kukis could pave the way for a lasting solution.

“If they (Manipur government) can restore peace and normalcy, resolve the ethnic crisis in the state without creating separate administrations, it is okay. The goals of all my views are making peace and normalcy in Manipur,” Mr Vanlalvena told IANS on Monday.

Ever since ethnic violence broke out in Manipur in May last year, all Kuki-Zo-Hmar groups and their 10  MLAs, including seven from the state’s ruling BJP, have been boycotting the Manipur assembly sessions and demanding a separate administration.

The Centre and the state government have on a number of occasions rejected the separate administration demand.