The world has rarely seen the conflicts where the majority feels threatened by minorities but the Manipur conflict is one of them. It’s more than three months of fierce ongoing violence between the majority Meitei and minority Kuki over the constitutional status of ‘Scheduled Tribe’. Now it’s not only the battle of land and influence, but has also changed its colours.
Initially, the Manipur conflict had nothing to do with religion or insurgency but was purely an ethnic conflict that has been used by BJP leaders in accordance with the policies of a Hindu Rashtra. An ethnic clash gives a chance to the BJP to practise its Hindutva ideology and Hindu majoritarian policies as most Meiteis are Hindus and Kukis are Christians. The state government is not neutral, being run by Meiteis.
They imposed military curfews, internet shutdowns, deployed troops & restricted travelling. All these measures made no difference to the violence other than creating a huge information vacuum. The reported casualties are around 160 but the question is, how is it possible when the state becomes a war zone and more than 60,000 people are displaced and above 1700 buildings are vandalized? Dead bodies cannot be balanced at all, but why is there no explanation about how many Meiteis were among the dead, and how many Kukis? Why is there no confident answer about which community attacked first? The police armouries, which were raided, were utilized by whom, by Meiteis or Kukis?
It’s pretty definite under the BJP Meiteis-run government, if more casualties were among Meiteis, if Kukis waged attacks and if Meiteis were being subjected to looted police armouries then Modi would not remain silent for so long. The conflict would absolutely not be protracted for three months under the government of Hindutva followers. There would be a ceasefire far before. It makes explicit that the Manipur violence has the state’s patronage.
Here the point is that first it was the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat under the BJP government and now it’s Christians in Manipur. Among all the minorities in Manipur, Christians are primarily targeted and these killings are being assisted by the police and government machinery as well. If the Indian media unveil the situation in Manipur without any government-told premises and the BJP government grants unhindered access to outsiders to look, then the world will surely call this violence the “Genocide of Kuki Christians”.
India may be the fastest growing economy but not without its minorities. If India needs to maintain this status and hegemony then it has to stop religious and ethnic cleansing. India has to understand it does need minorities. Manipur continues to burn, Manipuris continue to die, Modi continues to remain silent, and the BJP continues to practise its divisive Hindutva ideology.
Rape and sexual assault is a weapons of violence in conflict and in Manipur under the BJP this weapon is bluntly used. The BJP cadres worship women goddesses but don’t protect the dignity of women which becomes evident after the heinous incident of the naked Kuki women parade, which was filmed and put on the Internet). The aftermath of this gruesome incident will be as same as the heartbreaking Bilkis Bano case in the Gujarat riots (in which a pregnant woman was subjected to gangrape). The BJP will surely pardon the convicts of the Kuki women parade on malicious excuses. Just like the culprits of Bilkis Bano, who were released on the pretext of ‘Good Behaviour’ by the Modi government. The Hindu-centric approach has washed out all the moral values of BJP & Hindu supremacists. For the Modi government, human rights are nothing before Hindu majoritarianism. Nothing shakes them, neither the dignity of women nor the innocence of children. They can sacrifice anything for Hindutva ideology.
This war scenario in Manipur raises a few questions for Modi. Is Manipur not a part of India? Are the people living in Manipur, not the humans? Why is the government of more than a billion people so powerless in Manipur? Why is the government unable to stop the violence? If Manipur can be discussed in the European Union and the United Kingdom’s Parliament then why not in India’s Lok Sabha? Why can evident measures not be seen for peace in Manipur? And why are all these anxious questions left unentertained?
The BJP turned the beautiful lush green valleys of Manipur into pools of blood . The immobility of the central government made it explicit that they don’t want to control the violence. The divisive policy of the BJP will tear the world’s biggest democracy apart. The BJP government considers the Manipur violence as an internal affai,r but it is not an internal problem of India because human rights have no borders. It equally matters for all. In the aftermath of the conflict, the displacements and non-traditional insecurity will be more deadly than the violence.
India may be the fastest growing economy but not without its minorities. If India needs to maintain this status and hegemony then it has to stop religious and ethnic cleansing. India has to understand it does need minorities. Manipur continues to burn, Manipuris continue to die, Modi continues to remain silent, and the BJP continues to practise its divisive Hindutva ideology.
