Fresh Gunfight Shows Manipur Continues To Burn... Lest We Forget
Sagarneel Sinha
It has been four months now since the ethnic violence broke out between Meiteis and Kuki-Zomis in the northeastern state of Manipur, which is yet to see a return to normalcy. More than 160 people have been killed in the violence so far, with another 50,000 displaced from their homes. Although in the last two months, the violence did decrease, the situation remains tense as there is no sign of the existing fault lines between Meiteis and Kuki-Zomis being worked on.
In fact, the gap is widening with every passing day — and the fierce gunfight between the two communities on the border of Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts this week reiterates this. Six from both communities were killed in the bloodshed.
It is very unfortunate that the northeastern state is unable to see a return to normalcy even after four months. But despite that, the unfortunate developments of the state are no longer an important topic in the mainstream discussion. It seems that the story of Manipur has been forgotten.
True, the Centre, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been taking necessary security measures. Still, the groups belonging to both Meiteis and Kuki-Zomis continue to possess arms — the gunfight clearly indicates this. These armed groups have to be disarmed — and this is a tough challenge for the security establishment.
At the same time, it is also a fact that peace in the state can't be achieved through only security measures. Necessary political steps are needed to be taken. It is a positive sign that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been holding meetings with various stakeholders of the state to bring peace, but the Centre has yet to take any bold political steps and is maintaining the status quo by not removing Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who is seen as a representative of only Meiteis by the Kuki-Zomis, from his post.
It has been a bitter fact that Biren Singh failed to anticipate the violence and later control it. Still, the BJP isn’t keen on removing him in fear of alienating the Meitei votes. Unfortunately, the saffron party has failed to rise above electoral interests in the state. It is another fact that the functioning style of Biren is disliked even by a section of Meitei BJP MLAs.
One-day Session Of Manipur Assembly A Mockery Of Democracy
This week, a one-day session of the Manipur state assembly was held. What made it a mockery of democracy was that the session was over within one hour. This session was called to avoid a Constitutional crisis. As per Constitutional arrangement, there has to be an assembly session every six months. The last assembly session was held in the first week of March and so the next session was to be held by the first week of September.
At a time when the state was engulfed by horrific ethnic violence for around four months, the convening of an assembly session just for one day was not to strengthen democracy but to show that the "state is functioning well". More importantly, 10 Kuki-Zomi MLAs didn't join the session due to security reasons.
If MLAs don't feel safe travelling to Imphal to attend an assembly session, one can clearly imagine the ground situation and the bitter divide between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zomis.
Division Within Sikkim Unit Of BJP Over Alliance With SKM
Everything doesn’t seem to be well within the Sikkim unit of BJP on the issue of contesting upcoming assembly polls in alliance with the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha. Party MLA YT Lemcha expressed his dissent over the decision of the party to contest the polls alone. He said that if the saffron party contests alone, it won’t be able to win even 500 votes. The MLA won the Gangtok seat in the by-poll of 2019 as he was backed by the SKM.
Lepcha's statement came days after state party spokesperson Kamal Adhikari said that the BJP would contest the polls next year alone. The SKM, to which Chief Minister PS Golay belongs, is a constituent of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance at the central level. In the state, the BJP isn’t a part of the Cabinet and is providing outside support to the SKM-led government.
However, the state BJP leadership is unhappy with the functioning style of the SKM-led government. This year, on the 44th Foundation Day, the party’s Sikkim in-charge Dilip Jaiswal attacked the SKM government on the issue of corruption and development. The party’s strategy is to increase its foothold in the Himalayan state by contesting maximum seats — and it knows that an alliance with SKM won’t allow it to contest maximum seats. On the other hand, as expressed by Lemcha, without fighting in alliance with SKM, how many seats the saffron party would be able to win is also a big question. It has to be mentioned that the assembly polls of the northeastern state are going to be held next year along with the Lok Sabha polls.
Mizoram Elections: Opposition ZPM allies with HPC
The main Opposition in Mizoram, Zoram People’s Movement, has decided to ally with the Hmar People’s Conference, a smaller party that has influence over the Hmars. The HPC has said that it wouldn’t put any candidate and would support those of the ZPM. The Hmars are one of the ethnic minorities of the Mizo-dominated state.
The assembly elections of the northeastern state are going to be held later this year. The ZPM, led by Lalduhoma, has already declared candidates for all the 40 assembly constituencies of the state. It is already in poll mode and the decision to ally with the HPC, which earlier was an ally of the ruling Mizo National Front, is likely to give it a boost in three assembly seats — Serlui, Tuivawl, and Chalfilh — dominated by the Hmars. These seats were won by the MNF last time.
The author is a political commentator.
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