More than a month ago, a 19-year-old student travelled from her home in Manipur’s Kangpokpi by road, taking National Highway-2 through Senapati district, to her exam centre in Nagaland’s Kohima, to write the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) on May 3.
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Since then, not only has that test been cancelled following a paper leak controversy that rocked the entire country, but her state has also seen fresh conflict, with the flaring up of tensions and hardening of faultlines making the circumstances surrounding the upcoming NEET retest significantly different.
The national-level undergraduate medical entrance exam will now be held on June 21, and the 19-year-old has had to travel days before the test to the location of her examination centre, under the cover of night and accompanied by security personnel.
Manipur has NEET centres in three towns: in the capital, Imphal, located in the state’s Meitei-majority valley; in Kuki-Zo-majority Churachandpur; and in Chandel, which has a mixed tribal population. Students from the state have also been allocated centres in neighbouring states and in Guwahati.
This time, the teenager’s centre is in Churachandpur town, where Kuki-Zos like her are in the majority. But the now three-way conflict in Manipur, between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities on the one hand, and the Kuki-Zo and Naga communities on the other, has resulted in vast swathes of the state, including roads and highways, becoming potentially dangerous for members of each of the three communities.
Journey to Churachandpur
Going from Kangpokpi to Churachandpur through any route requires travelling either through Meitei- or Naga-majority areas. And so, the 19-year-old and around 20 other medical aspirants from Kangpokpi travelled on Tuesday night as part of a security convoy through the valley to Churachandpur. It was the first time since May 2023 — when the conflict started — that she entered the Imphal valley.
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“It was really scary because it felt like anything could happen. It was dark when we left, and we were surrounded by security forces. But we reached safely late in the night, and I am staying at my aunt’s place here till the exam,” she says.
She recalls that she was already “emotionally and physically burned out” by the NEET cancellation and the process of preparing to sit for the examination again. “I am just trying to hold myself together. I feel that after going through so much, I can’t give up right now. So, my friends and I are encouraging each other,” she says.
Kuki Students’ Organisation Kangpokpi vice-president Thangtinlen Haokip says this transportation was arranged for aspirants with the help of the district administration, police, security forces. He says another batch of students from Kangpokpi was similarly escorted to the airport in Imphal, to travel onwards to their centres.
With the tangle of conflict, blockades, and threats, various district administrations such as those in Kangpokpi, Kamjong, Noney, Tamenglong, Tengnoupal and Senapati have announced transportation and security arrangements for the candidates and their guardians to travel for their exams.
The Tengnoupal administration announced, “In view of the prevailing law and order situation, special coordination mechanisms have been put in place with the concerned authorities to ensure the safety and security of candidates and guardians during the examination period.”
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‘Confidence shaken’
Another medical aspirant, a 21-year-old from Naga-majority Senapati, says she is on edge, waiting to find out about the arrangements for her travel to her exam centre in Imphal. For her May 3 exam, she had made the same journey, which requires travelling through Kuki-Zo-majority Kangpokpi, without a hitch. The inflammation of conflict between the Naga and Kuki-Zo communities in the subsequent period, especially in Senapati and Kangpokpi, means that the same journey is now another source of anxiety for her.
“When the Senapati District Students’ Association told us that they are coordinating military protection for us, it really unsettled me, and it has been haunting me ever since. What if there is an ambush or a bomb attack on the way? My confidence is already shaken by the exam leak and cancellation,” she says.
Using almost the same language as the 19-year-old from Kangpokpi, she says that she is “emotionally and physically drained”.
“We had prepared and written the exam, giving it our best — and all our hard work was for nothing. So I have already been losing confidence. This is very stressful,” she says.
Senapati District Students Association president Saloni Tony says there are over 80 students from their district who they are in touch with for this travel.
According to the National Testing Agency data, 9,285 students from Manipur had appeared in the May 3 NEET examination.
Manipur has NEET centres in three towns: in the capital, Imphal, located in the state’s Meitei-majority valley; in Kuki-Zo-majority Churachandpur; and in Chandel, which has a mixed tribal population. 
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