State in retreat, chaos in Imphal

Prayers being offered at the Wall of Remembrance in Churachandpur district of Manipur on Friday

A year after ethnic clashes broke out, the state of Manipur continues to be roiled by violence. The regional, ethnic, and religious fault lines that developed following a high court order in favour of the inclusion of the Meiteis in the state’s Scheduled Tribes list in March last year (the court has since deleted that paragraph from its order) and subsequent Kuki mobilisations against it, have deepened to the extent that a return to an inclusive Manipuri identity seems impossible in the near future. Elections to the two Lok Sabha constituencies reflected the fault lines and the results are most likely to reaffirm the great divide between the Meteis, the majority community residing in the Imphal Valley, and the Kukis, who live in the hills. The violence that led to the killing of 225 people over a year, left thousands homeless and saw large-scale destruction of property was accompanied by major looting of state armouries. The violence has become sporadic, but arms are available in plenty.

Over the course of the year, the state has been reduced to mostly a bystander as armed mobs have taken over streets, destroyed “enemy” property, killed and raped, marked out their territorial strongholds, and started patrolling their “boundaries”. The writ of the government had ceased to function despite the armed forces being called in to restore order and peace. And even they haven’t been spared — on April 27, a day after the polling, two CRPF personnel were killed in a grenade attack in Bishnupur, part of the Inner Manipur constituency. Probes about rapes, missing people, and attacks on churches and temples are far from closure. Chief minister N Biren Singh has presided over this state of anarchy and even contributed to the sharpening of tensions with his thoughtless statements that have reduced him to a sectarian politician. His appeasement of Meitei’s grievances when he should have held his people together, has seemingly endeared him to a large section of the community. That makes him indispensable to the BJP, the party in office in Imphal, and the Centre. However, his record in office and legacy as a politician are likely to be a burden if the party opts for an overhaul of the government.

So where does the state go from here? The return to normalcy is likely to be a long drawn out and tortuous process. The breakdown of the State is most exemplified by the rise of Arambai Tenggol, an armed radical Meitei group that has come to be identified as almost a super-state. The January incident when Meitei MLAs were called to the Kangla Fort in Imphal and publicly humiliated by the group revealed the extent of this group’s domination of the political space in the state. It also points to the retreat of civil society and the intense militarisation taking place across Manipur. It threatens a return to the past when militant groups in Manipur had the muscle to extort and kill at will and the administration operated under the shadow of the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act.

With the State missing in action, the militarisation can only intensify in the coming days. The unrest in neighbouring Myanmar has also contributed to the chaos with the easy inflow of arms and ammunition as well as the influx of refugees, which is not surprising in a region where ethnic ties tend to be privileged over national identities.

Manipur needs a new political imagination that can override the idea of a state defined by ethnicity and the fear of the other. Delhi will need to take the lead before it is too late. As time passes, the walls will become difficult to break down and the healing of wounds near impossible.

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