Manipur: A war-like situation now

The strife in Manipur has attained a higher intensity now than ever seen in the last few months, with an attack by militants on civilian areas using rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and drones.

Suspected Kuki militants bombed a Meitei village in Imphal West district, near the border with the Kuki-majority Kangpokpi district on Sunday, killing at least one woman and injuring some others. Similar bombs were dropped on Tuesday also in another area of the district. Gunfights were also reported.

The deployment of drones and RPGs takes the strife levels in the state to a battlefield scenario. There is fighting between rebels and the junta in neighbouring Myanmar.

The situation in Bangladesh is also volatile. The Manipur police has seen the involvement of trained personnel with technical expertise behind the incidents. If the warfare-like situation spreads, it will mark a new phase of strife which will be more difficult to control. 

Only last week Chief Minister N Biren Singh had said that peace would be restored in the state in the next six months. He had said that he was the leader of all people in the state and it was his job to protect the state and its people.

The incidents have shown that he is unable to protect life and property of the people, as he has been in the past 16 months, since May 3 last year when violence started.

Just as violence is happening in some areas and it can erupt in other areas, there is a demand from a section in the ruling BJP for the withdrawal of central forces from the state and to hand over control of the security forces to the Chief Minister’s Office.

What could happen in such an eventuality can well be imagined, because the Chief Minister is partisan and is himself considered to be a part of the problem. There are charges that the Chief Minister admitted that he started the conflict. 

There was talk of a dialogue taking place and a breakthrough being made by emissaries appointed by the Chief Minister. In the light of the continuing strife and the escalation of violence in some places, the claims of an imminent return to peace and normalcy seem to be misplaced.

The state is divided into Meitei and Kuki areas, with suspicion and even hostility marking the borders between them. Over 60,000 displaced people are living in camps. Life is no longer normal for them and for most others.

About 5,000 firearms looted from armouries are in circulation. The central government has for the most part behaved as if the state does not exist for it when the state and the people are steadily moving deeper into strife and chaos.