In Manipur, a government people don’t trust

The immediate fallout of this arrangement is a facile division of labour, which has an important bearing on the working of a unified security command on the one hand and on securing peace and stability on the other. While the Kuki-Zomi groups have demanded the sufficient deployment of central paramilitary forces in the foothills’ “buffer zones” to secure peace, they are increasingly seen as obstacles to peace by valley-based Meitei Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). This explains why the Meira Paibis, a group of torch-bearing women, staged a series of roadblocks asking for the withdrawal of paramilitary forces in these buffer zones.

There are credible ground reports which suggest the police continue to give security cover to armed militant groups like Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun to launch offensive attacks against Kuki-Zomi villages in the foothills. The entry of the police to these foothills on the pretext of combing operations to disarm the Kuki-Zomi armed groups and the reported blanket security cover they give to the Meitei armed groups intermittently leverages their confrontation with the paramilitary forces. A recent confrontation of this kind at Serou village is used as an example by Meitei CSOs in the valley to frame the latter as obstructing the cause of maintaining law and order.

Interestingly, unlike the central paramilitary forces who are seen as guardians of peace and security, the Kuki-Zomi groups have completely lost trust in the state police. This also explains the differing voices around the call to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act two decades ago. Unlike their valley counterparts and the Nagas, various Kuki-Zomi groups told the B P Jeevan Reddy Committee in 2004 that the armed forces should stay put in their areas to secure them from attacks by proscribed valley-based armed organisations.

The tribal security dilemma got accentuated when cadres of the United National Liberation Front and Kangleipak Communist Party, two proscribed valley-based Meitei armed groups, were flushed out by the army from the Sajik Tampak area in the 2004 ‘Operation All Clear’. After they shifted their camps to the hill areas, they planted mines that killed 13 tribals. A dozen Hmar women were reportedly raped in the Parbung area of Lamka (Churachandpur district) in January 2006. A team from the National Commission for Women which conducted a spot inquiry was alarmed by the grave “violence and violation” of human rights committed by these cadres. The role of the state police was compromised during the 2015 tribal agitation when they allegedly killed eight tribals. This compounded the tribals’ trust-deficit vis a vis the state law and order machinery.

The institutionalised ecosystem that feeds this structural violence becomes apparent as the agenda and role of the state, Meitei armed militant groups and frontal civil societies are seen as reinforcing each other.

Given this historical context, central paramilitary forces and the state police are in an unenviable position. The increasing pressure from frontal Meitei CSOs to openly support their cause is not surprising. It is in this context that the Kuki-Zomi raised their concern about the placement of 22 Meitei high-ranking officers in the sensitive army/paramilitary camps across the state.

What is disturbing in the most recent spate of violence is the mobilisation of armed Meitei groups in thousands to attack and burn the villages of Khopibung, Aigejang, and Khamenlok Kuki, allegedly under state security cover. That this large-scale mobilisation happened notwithstanding the imposition of curfew under Section 144 Criminal Procedure Code exposes lawlessness in the state.

If the Centre sincerely seeks to restore a semblance of law and order, the constitutional anomaly that perpetuates structural violence must be addressed. Imposition of President’s Rule is a necessary first step. While combing operations to disarm armed groups are welcome, the principal focus should be to immediately disarm Arambam Tenggol and Meitei Leepun and flush out proscribed Meitei armed terrorist organisations to forestall any further offensive attacks on Kuki-Zomi villages in the foothills.

In the meantime, the three-member Inquiry Commission constituted by Centre should be directly supervised by the Supreme Court so that accountability is fixed and justice being delivered is seen to be fair. Invoking illegal immigration, narco-terrorism, Chinese and Pakistani hands without a rounded assessment of the deeper nexus of proscribed Meitei armed organisations and high-ranking state officials may be a convenient excuse to use national security as a trump card to absolve the Biren Singh government. But this will not be very helpful in addressing structural violence.

The writer is professor and head, Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad, and Senior Fellow, Centre for Multilevel Federalism, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. Views are personal