The violence that has raged in Manipur since May seems to have abated somewhat. However, the state remains on edge. The Biren Singh government, found wanting on several fronts, must now work towards building bridges between ethnic groups and being, and being seen to be, above the bitter identity politics that has pushed the state to the brink. It did the right thing, last week, by lifting the ban on mobile internet.
Singh had justified the ban as a policing tool to counter the spread of “fake news”. But by all accounts, the measure had the opposite effect — it checked the flow of accurate information and sharpened polarisation amongst Manipur’s warring communities, Kukis and Meiteis.
Now, as the state takes steps towards restoring normalcy, the state government must heed the advice of a Supreme Court-appointed panel. Last week, the committee of three retired high court judges suggested that the government publish a list of the dead so that their next of kin can be identified, and “if no one comes forward, dispose of the bodies in a respectable manner”. This could help bring a modicum of closure to many grieving families.
According to the Manipur police, the last rites of at least 96 of the deceased — more than half the official death count — have not taken place.
This is largely because families of one community have not been able to visit mortuaries in areas dominated by the other. The issue became a flashpoint last month when the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum — a largely Kuki group — announced that it would conduct a mass burial at Torbung village, along the border of the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur and Meitei-majority Bishnupur districts. It required an appeal by the Union home ministry for the group to call off the event.
But tensions had escalated by then, leading to another round of violence in the two districts. The solution proposed by the SC panel could help soothe frayed nerves.
It is disturbing that lessons from the nearly six-month-long conflict continue to elude the Biren Singh government. At a SC hearing, last month, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Manipur, said that “most bodies lying unclaimed in the morgues are of infiltrators”.
This is of a piece with Singh’s persistent blaming of “outsiders” for the violence — a position that has invited accusations of partisanship. That the Manipur CM still doesn’t recognise the need for an honest discussion on his governance and political failures is evident from his request last week to the Centre to wind up the free movement regime along the Indo-Myanmar border.
He cited porous borders as one of the reasons for “illegal migration and drug trafficking” — two things he has repeatedly blamed for the conflict. Manipur desperately needs a healing touch and a government sensitive to reconciling differences. Singh’s hardline on the insider-outside divide is inimical to rebuilding trust in the border state. The Centre, which has been seen as soft on the Manipur CM’s serial abdications, must push him to accept the SC panel’s advice. It must not accede to Singh’s proposal to close borders.
