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 was no law. There was absolute breakdown of machinery that you could not even register FIR. State police is incapable of investigation. They have lost control. There is absolutely no law and order.’ Modi had won 2014 on his rallying cry of ‘maximum governance.’ This was nothing short of a complete sham.
Easy access to megaphones and their ability to manipulate misinformation and disinformation had made the BJP leaders thick-skinned. They knew that they could insouciantly control the narrative or thrust a red herring, even at a time of the greatest national shame, even if the press conference was egregiously fabricated. Like senior minister Ravi Shankar Prasad claiming that the ‘timing’ of the leaked video that shamed India globally, could have been a political conspiracy curated by a desperate Opposition to embarrass the Modi government before the start of the parliamentary session. It was a mockery of the public discourse. Essentially, according to him, the Opposition was using the ghastly humiliation of India’s women as an instrument for filibustering in Parliament. This was vile, given the sensitivity of the case and the circumstances. But that did not matter in a country that had blithely assimilated a political culture of deliberate falsehoods. Fake news and post-truth was common practice. It was now part of communications strategy. Prasad should have been answering the following questions which every Indian was thinking: How come the Manipur administration (read Chief Minister Biren Singh) was not aware of such violent manifestations which had happened in a state with a population of just 3 million, until the horrific video surfaced? Since Singh had stated to a TV channel that there were ‘hundreds of such cases’, what had he done about the gangrapes which had not been captured on video and circulated? Why did it take the victim over a fortnight to get an FIR registered on 18 May 2023? Why was it a Zero FIR when the faces of several rogues were easily decipherable? Why was it that only on 22 June 2023 was a complete FIR filed? Since central forces had moved in on 4 May itself and India’s Union Home Minister Amit Shah had visited the state on 29 May (twenty-six long days after the ethnic conflict broke out), was he apprised of the dastardly incident by the CM or was he not? Both ways, did anything justify the radio silence thereafter by both of them? Was this not wilful deception on the part of the BJP to obfuscate and bury an ugly truth under the pretext of internet shutdowns and national security? Is it not true that the CM said on 20 June, right in the middle of the ethnic conflict which many have dubbed as a civil war, ‘These acts must stop. Mainly the SOO (Suspension of Operations) kuki militants should stop it, otherwise they will face the consequences. I also appeal to Meitei people, who are with arms, not to do anything illegal.’ Was this not a case of biased messaging, using the powerful bully pulpit for playing a prejudiced politics? Is it not true that in another speech, he had alluded to ‘terrorists’ in Manipur? Who was he referring to? How is it that over several days, several thousands of arms, ammunition and bullets were stolen right from under the nose of the Manipur police (state police estimate above 3,500 weapons and 5,00,000 bullets)? How was that possible without wilful collusion between both the guardians of law and order and the torchbearers of hate? It is a grocery list of questions to which the BJP had obviously no answers. But topping it all remained the billion-dollar question that a frightened media dared not to ask of Modi: Why had he chosen to be mummified at a time of such incendiary madness? Why had Modi behaved like the prime minister of the BJP instead of acting like the prime minister of India? To understand that better, one has to understand the nitty-gritties of fascist leadership.
2024: INDIA IN FREE FALL
Sanjay Jha
HarperCollins, Pg 294, Rs 599