Difficult Days

How ill-conceived and ill-executed policies created internal unrest in Manipur. An extract

Sanjay Jha

The riots commenced on 3 May 2023 after a protest march by a tribal union opposed to the recent Manipur High Court order, which had mandated the Manipur government to send a recommendation to the centre regarding the demand to include the majority Meitei community (53 per cent of Manipur’s population) in the Scheduled Tribes (STs) list. On 4 May, the Centre invoked Article 355 of the Constitution, as the state entered a dangerously uncontrolled state of affairs. Both sides hurled allegations and counterattacks at each other, listing among them, poppy cultivation, illegal migration of Myanmar refugees, the alleged deforestation, war on drug cartel, freedom to buy land in the hill areas, etc.

The Supreme Court’s observations were extremely terse, made on 17 May 2023 against the Manipur Hight Court’s direction to the state government to consider the inclusion of the Meitei community in the ST list, which turned out to be the flashpoint for the conflagration. ‘I think we have to stay the order of the High Court. We have given Justice Muralidharan time to correct himself, but he did not. I mean it’s very clear what to do if High Court doesn’t follow constitution judge benches,’ CJI Chandrachud remarked, orally, as reported by LiveLaw.

The political executive had been a failure, prompting the SC to step in. The SC observations were to say the least, damning. ‘Investigation is so lethargic. FIRs registered after two months. Arrests not made. Statements recorded after a long lapse of time. This gives us the impression that from the beginning of May till the end of July there wa