Manipur Violence: As Amit Shah Holds Meet With Political, Civil Leaders, the Conflict Explained

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is on a mission to restore peace in strife-torn Manipur, held several meetings with political and civil society leaders from both the Meitei and Kuki communities and visited Churachandpur, where some of the worst riots took place earlier Were. This month, on Tuesdays.

Shah, who reached Imphal last night accompanied by the Home Secretary, held a meeting with Chief Minister N Biren Singh, some of his cabinet colleagues, intelligence and security officials late on Monday night to take stock of the situation. Sources told PTI that the meeting decided on a series of relief measures as well as steps to increase supply to bring down the prices of essential commodities in this northeastern state, which was rocked by ethnic violence earlier this month. The violence has increased since it began.

Why the clashes?

The Kukis have been demanding a separate administration for the districts they live in, failing which they have also demanded imposition of President’s rule in the state.

Manipur, which has been wracked by ethnic strife for nearly a month, witnessed a sudden spurt in clashes and firing between militants and security forces on Sunday, after several weeks of a relative lull.

According to officials, the death toll in the caste riots that began on May 3 has risen to 80.

An official said army and paramilitary personnel are conducting search operations in Imphal Valley and adjoining districts. He said the army’s operation was aimed at confiscating illegal stock of arms.

Caste clashes broke out in Manipur for the first time after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organized in the hill districts on May 3, protesting the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

The violence was preceded by tension over the eviction of Kuki villagers from reserved forest land, which led to several smaller agitations. Meites constitute about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and mostly live in the Imphal Valley. The tribal Nagas and Kukis constitute 40 per cent of the population and reside in the hill districts.

About 140 columns of the Indian Army and the Assam Rifles, comprising over 10,000 personnel, apart from other paramilitary forces, were deployed to bring back normalcy in the northeastern state.

a deep look

From the beginning of this year, unrest broke out again in Manipur due to various reasons. Unprecedented violent clashes, attacks and arson took place at various places during the ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ called by the All Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur (ATSUM) on 3 May. According to a report by IANS.

Acting on a writ petition filed by the Meetei (Meitei) trade union, Manipur High Court Acting Chief Justice MV Muraleedharan on April 19 submitted a recommendation to the state government to include the Meetei (Meitei) community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list. was instructed to do. ) List to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

The High Court order states: “The issue of inclusion of Meitei/Meitei community in the list of Scheduled Tribes of the Constitution is pending for nearly ten years and more. No satisfactory explanation is forthcoming from the respondent State for not submitting the recommendations for the last 10 years.

“Therefore, it would be appropriate to direct the respondent State to submit its recommendation to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs within a reasonable time.”

The High Court order turned into a major controversy as thousands of tribals turned up for ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ called by a student body in 10 hill districts on May 3.

Earlier, in a civil writ petition filed by eight members of the Meetei (Meitei) Tribal Federation, led by union secretary Mutum Churamani Meetei, the first respondent (Government of Manipur) was directed to issue a writ of mandamus directing the union to submit a recommendation in response. was demanded. Ministry of Tribal Affairs letter dated May 29, 2013.

According to Meitei and other agitators, the influx of outsiders from both inside and outside the country, including people from Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh, has significantly affected Manipur’s identity, culture, economy, administration and environment.

The Meitei community has been demanding inclusion in the list of STs. Those demanding ST status claimed that there was a need to protect the valley inhabited by the Meitei community, while tribals living in the hilly region of Manipur were already protected as a Scheduled Tribe category.

The BJP-led government in Manipur has claimed that the process of including Meiteis in the ST list is on.

The Central Government on December 11, 2019, at the height of the agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), introduced the ILP (Inner Line Permit) system to keep a tight vigil on the movement of outsiders in the state and to protect the interests of the people. Indigenous peoples.

The ILP under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 is an official travel document that allows an Indian citizen to visit states where the ILP is in force for a limited period and for a specific purpose.

Manipur has been agitating for the past several months with several women, students and youth bodies and civil society organizations agitating against the alleged “delay strategy” of the state government in introducing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state. Functioning of Manipur State Population Commission (MSPC).

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had said that his government is ready to implement the NRC in the state, but approval from the central government is needed to do so.

He said that the state government has already constituted the MSPC and it will identify the immigrants in the state based on the cut-off year of 1961.

“People from Myanmar seeking asylum in Manipur is a separate issue. At any cost, we will protect the demography as well as the tradition and culture of the original inhabitants of the state.”

Meanwhile, the Manipur government has decided to first identify Myanmar refugees who have sought asylum in the northeastern state and keep them in designated detention centres.

Nearly 5,000 migrants, including women and children, have fled conflict-torn Myanmar since the military took power in the neighboring country in February 2021.

An official said the Manipur government recently constituted a cabinet sub-committee headed by Minister for Tribal Affairs and Hill Development Letpao Haokip following the armed conflict between the Myanmar Army and the Myanmar Army near the Indian border areas. Because thousands migrated to Myanmar state. People’s Defense Force.

The hills cover 90 percent of the state’s area and 10 percent of the population while the valleys occupy 10 percent of the land.

The valley is home to Hindu, non-tribal Meitei communities, while the hills are largely inhabited by Christian Naga and Kuki-Zomi communities.

In another development, the North East Students’ Organization (NESO), the apex body of eight major student organizations from seven northeastern states, in May condemned the action of the Manipur government that was eviction of indigenous residents belonging to the Zo community and its The violent incidents that followed.

“The tribals were evicted on the pretext that they were settling in reserve forest whereas the fact is that these indigenous inhabitants have been living in these areas for ages.”

NESO president Samuel B Jirwa and general secretary Mutsikhyo Yobo said, “The Manipur government has to keep in mind that these are the indigenous communities of the Northeast and have settled on these lands from their forefathers and they are not illegal immigrants from Nepal or Bangladesh.” in a joint statement.

effect on violence effect

Two Mizoram districts – Aizawl and Saitual – share a border of about 95 km with Manipur, which also has inter-state borders of 204 km and 225 km with Assam and Nagaland, respectively.

Several tribal and non-tribal communities especially Meitei, Naga, Kuki, Mizo, Chakma are living in various North Eastern states, presenting a complex linguistic mosaic with more than 200 dialects.

The Northeast region is home to 45.58 million people (2011 census). Indigenous tribals constitute about 28 percent of the population and they mostly speak either their mother tongue or their indigenous language.

Tribals and non-tribals belong to Hindu, Christian and Muslim communities with different lifestyles, cultures, traditions and languages.

Any negative incident involving one or two communities in a particular state often has an adverse effect in other states in the region leading to ethnic unrest.

Apart from militancy, ethnic conflicts such as Naga-Kuki, Meitei vs other tribals, Chakma vs other tribals, and many others have claimed thousands of lives and caused huge property damage during the last several decades in the North Eastern region.

IANS, PTI contributed to this report