Getting walloped from different sides Lessons in the last 3 years
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Getting walloped from different sides and Manipur has been facing this situation since May 3, 2023. To be sure the people and the place will emerge out of the current crisis but the critical question is whether Manipur and her people have learnt any lesson in the last three years or not. And to pick up any lesson that would help the place and her people in the days to come, it is right that certain facts be admitted. In the last three years, it should have been obvious to everyone that Manipur has no friends. It was only the right wing publications which came out in full support of Manipur negating the many yarns that were peddled and which were spread by some of the so called ‘liberal media’ in other parts of the country. In fact situation had come to such a pass that Imphal based media were even dubbed the ‘Meitei media’ by certain personalities, representing responsible media organisations. One wonders what some of the self appointed, moral guardians who had donned the garb of media vigilantes, feeding the public with their ‘interpretation’ of the minority being pulverised by the majority, would have to say on the bombing of two young children at Tronglaobi in the dead of the night of April 7. For that matter nothing much was heard of from such elements when six persons, including three women and three children, were abducted at Jiribam in 2024 and later their lifeless bodies were found floating in the Barak river. So nothing is expected to be heard from these pen pushers. This is where Manipur should question itself on why it finds itself so alone, so cut off that no one has come forward to speak on its behalf. This is a fact and this is something which CSOs which have been at the forefront in crying out on behalf of Manipur and her people should acknowledge and see what steps may be taken up to cultivate friends in the right places. The stories that were prepared, the figures that were worked out, the list worked out to specify the places of worship that were destroyed came out in no time from the side of the Kuki people, and it was only after a lot of probing and questions that Manipur managed to work out the list of the places of worship of the Meiteis which were vandalised and brought down to the ground. A case of the Kukis having worked out their strategy much before May 3, 2023 or a case of Manipur being caught on the wrong foot and failing to work out the needed media strategy ? How the story is told and what is told is a strategy which the Kukis seem to have mastered and the tragedy is, far from learning anything from this, a number of loudmouths from those who claim to represent Manipur, seem to have come under the assumption that it is only them who have been batting for the idea of Manipur.
So many invaluable lessons ought to have been learnt from the past three years, but judging by what one sees, it seems nothing has been learnt and this is what is tragic. A lesson that can also be learnt from what is happening at Litan and its adjoining villages. The strategy at work is also clear. Make it a clash not between the Kukis and the Nagas but one between the Kukis and the Tangkhuls. And an approach which seems to be working at the moment, as Senapati, Tamenglong and Chandel have not come out as strongly as expected. This reality should dawn on apex organisations such as the United Naga Council, but remember people of Ukhrul have had to take an 8 hour road route since the stretch from Litan to Mahadev on the Imphal-Ukhrul route passes through at least three Kuki dominated villages ! If at all Manipur is to demonstrate that it is willing to learn lessons from the last three years, then it should look back at the distant and not so distant past and go back to the days when Kuki, as a community, was central in all the clashes witnessed in the North Eastern region of the country. Lessons should be drawn from the Kuki-Hrangkhawl clash in Tripura, Kuki-Chakma clash in Tripura, Kuki-Karbi, Kuki-Dimasa clashes in Assam, the Kuki-Paite clash in Manipur, Kuki-Bru clash in Bangladesh, the Naga-Kuki clash of the 1990s and draw a parallel with the unchecked immigration down the decades.
So many invaluable lessons ought to have been learnt from the past three years, but judging by what one sees, it seems nothing has been learnt and this is what is tragic. A lesson that can also be learnt from what is happening at Litan and its adjoining villages. The strategy at work is also clear. Make it a clash not between the Kukis and the Nagas but one between the Kukis and the Tangkhuls. And an approach which seems to be working at the moment, as Senapati, Tamenglong and Chandel have not come out as strongly as expected. This reality should dawn on apex organisations such as the United Naga Council, but remember people of Ukhrul have had to take an 8 hour road route since the stretch from Litan to Mahadev on the Imphal-Ukhrul route passes through at least three Kuki dominated villages ! If at all Manipur is to demonstrate that it is willing to learn lessons from the last three years, then it should look back at the distant and not so distant past and go back to the days when Kuki, as a community, was central in all the clashes witnessed in the North Eastern region of the country. Lessons should be drawn from the Kuki-Hrangkhawl clash in Tripura, Kuki-Chakma clash in Tripura, Kuki-Karbi, Kuki-Dimasa clashes in Assam, the Kuki-Paite clash in Manipur, Kuki-Bru clash in Bangladesh, the Naga-Kuki clash of the 1990s and draw a parallel with the unchecked immigration down the decades.