Recent editorials on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled trip to Manipur (‘To Manipur, finally’, IE, September 4) and on the agreements reached by the Centre and Kuki-Zo groups (‘An opening in Manipur’, IE, September 8) say that the PM’s proposed visit comes at a critical moment, when the prospect of resolution exists. What magic wand will PM Modi wave in Manipur? Its people keenly await his visit after enduring over two years of ethnic violence. He had deputed Amit Shah a few days after the violence, and the latter did what most Home Ministers do. He urged the state government to ensure that law and order are under control and retrieve the stolen weapons. What Amit Shah did not raise was why underground outfits like the Arambai Tenggol and the Meitei Leepun were given a free hand by then Chief Minister N Biren Singh.
The primary action after the violence began on May 3 should have been to bring the state under President’s Rule immediately. This did not happen, either because of a poor reading of the situation or because Manipur was under a BJP government. And so, the violence raged on, and people continued to be killed.
Manipur became national news when the video of two young women being paraded naked made it onto social media. Families who lost young members in the violence and those Kuki-Zo homes in Imphal that were torched have not seen justice. Meiteis, too, have been killed in the Kuki-Zo majority areas.
Free movement, as the editorials correctly point out, is a key factor in peace-building. In Kangpokpi in October 2023, I was told that even the relief material promised by the Centre could not reach the district because the vehicles could not come to the hills from Imphal. My friends and I from Shillong had to take the long route, Dimapur-Kohima-Senapati, to reach Kangpokpi. It wasn’t safe to take the Imphal-Kangpokpi route then, and it is not safe today. Such is the brutal division of spaces in the same state inhabited by three major ethnic communities — Meiteis, Kukis and Nagas.
The first editorial hopes that the PM’s visit becomes a significant step towards rebuilding trust and restoring a political process. How will this be possible when the Kuki-Zo community continues to be treated with disdain and labelled as “narco-terrorists” by some Meitei factions? Fostering trust is easier said than done until these narratives are discarded.
President’s Rule, when it did come in February 2025, only two-and-a-half months short of two years of violence, was too little too late. It was a face-saving attempt that did not send the right message.
Manipur politics is very asymmetrical. In the 60-member Assembly, the Meitei-dominated valley has 40 seats while the Nagas and Kuki-Zo have 10 MLAs each. This is because of the larger population in the valley and its periphery. In such a setting, how does governance balance out? Even if the Kuki-Zo demand for a Separate Administration is shot down, what steps will help ensure that the Centre’s funds do not circulate only in the valley?
Violence in Manipur was sparked off by a decision of the Manipur High Court, which stated that the Meitei community, which constitutes 53 per cent of the state’s population, is to be included in the Scheduled Tribes list. Later, the Supreme Court castigated this decision, stating that this was an entirely legislative matter and not the brief of the courts. However, the large-scale takeover of forests in the hills and turning them into reserved forests by evicting the tribals who were already living in those areas created a lot of resentment against the state government.
Now, before PM Modi’s visit, there have been more agreements signed between the Centre and the militant outfits that are under the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement, renegotiating the terms of an old ceasefire. Other deals with Kuki-Zo groups include the opening up of National Highway 02, connecting the hills and valley, to allow the movement of essential goods.
The renegotiated agreement with militant groups like the Kuki National Organisation and United People’s Front includes honouring the “territorial integrity of Manipur” and working towards a negotiated political solution to bring lasting peace. Beyond security issues, not much attention has been paid to the development aspect, on which rests much of the anguish. Whether these agreements, which appear only as hard-core, security-centric motives, will actually lead to normalcy in Manipur as hoped for in the editorials, is questionable. The development vacuum in the hills has only exacerbated after the conflict. What sort of institutions will come up in the hills, or will development continue to be valley-centric? Who will pursue this agenda? Any settlement not grounded in justice cannot sustain long-term peace.
Justice involves recognising the wrongs committed over the years by neglecting the hills. After the 2023 violence, the Kuki-Zo working in the valley had to leave under duress. Will it be easy for them to return to their workplaces? These questions remain unanswered.
The writer is editor of Shillong Times
