Understanding beyond the coup Infiltration, fake Aadhaar
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The common thread running through is unmistakable and one wonders why the Government of India is still playing a game of hide and seek and further letting the fire spread in conflict ridden Manipur. It was sometime in the middle of last year that Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself admitted that illegal immigration from across the border is one of the reasons for the ethnic violence in Manipur and this was followed by the admission of Foreign Minister S Jaishanker while responding to a query from a representative of the Human Rights Watch during an interaction with the Council of Foreign Relations that illegal immi- gration has had a destabilising impact on Manipur. This was said in New York sometime in September last year. Illegal immigrants and this should be understood beyond the 2021 coup in Myanmar and the ongoing clash between the military Junta and the different armed ethnic groups in the neighbouring country and one just need to recall the number of people caught with fake Aadhaar cards and Voter identity cards not only in Manipur but also in other States of North East India. Connect the dots, cross the Ts and dot the Is, and one can work out the common theme running through illegal immigrants, the fake Aadhaar cards, the large scale drug trafficking from across the border, the busting of drug manufacturing units in Manipur, the sustained call to implement the National Register of Citizens with 1951 as the base year, the War on Drugs campaign launched by the State Government since 2018 and the ongoing ethnic clash since May of 2023. New Delhi has more than admitted that large scale infiltration from across the border is part of the problem that one sees in the ongoing ethnic clash and the natural question that follows it what steps have been taken up to address this point ? Doing away with the Free Movement Regime, the promise to fence the Indo-Myanmar border can at best amount to treating the symptoms for Delhi will need to do more than this, if Manipur is to be addressed and taken care of. This is grouse number one of the people and if Delhi still refuses to see the black and white point that has been laid, then it would not be wrong for the people to understand the issue via the compulsion felt due to the pulls and pressures of geo-politics. This is probably the reason why Amit Shah refused to look beyond the obvious and just cited the Manipur High Court order on the ST for Meiteis issue during the early days of the clash. Such an amateurish approach to the issue which has layers and layers of complexity is not what one expected from a man holding the position as important and sensitive as the Home portfolio of the Government of India.
This was in 2023 and there is nothing much to suggest that Delhi has moved on or is even ready to move on. Even after more than 90 days, Delhi continues to remain quiet on the official status of the Suspension of Operation pact, as there was no official report on whether the pact has been extended or whether it has been made redundant. This was after the validity of the SoO pact expired on February 28 this year. There are so many things that Manipur expects Delhi to get its act together on. For one, look at the question of large scale infiltration beyond the ongoing trouble at Myanmar and the military coup of 2021 but take cognizance of the unnatural population growth and the number of villages that have sprung up. Acknowledging this will also explain human settlements in Reserved and Protected Forests. For over a year Manipur has been burning and it is only right that Delhi go back earlier than what happened more recently at Myanmar to understand so many of the issues besieging the State. A look back at the record books and why a Kuki gentleman, a certain Paolienlal Haokip had mentioned in his own article back in 2022 that about 20,000 Kukis had infiltrated into Manipur due to the ‘push policy’ adopted by the Government of Myanmar back in 1967. If this is not enough then one wonders what more would be needed to spell out the truth and the reality, which can have a huge impact in the region in the coming days.
This was in 2023 and there is nothing much to suggest that Delhi has moved on or is even ready to move on. Even after more than 90 days, Delhi continues to remain quiet on the official status of the Suspension of Operation pact, as there was no official report on whether the pact has been extended or whether it has been made redundant. This was after the validity of the SoO pact expired on February 28 this year. There are so many things that Manipur expects Delhi to get its act together on. For one, look at the question of large scale infiltration beyond the ongoing trouble at Myanmar and the military coup of 2021 but take cognizance of the unnatural population growth and the number of villages that have sprung up. Acknowledging this will also explain human settlements in Reserved and Protected Forests. For over a year Manipur has been burning and it is only right that Delhi go back earlier than what happened more recently at Myanmar to understand so many of the issues besieging the State. A look back at the record books and why a Kuki gentleman, a certain Paolienlal Haokip had mentioned in his own article back in 2022 that about 20,000 Kukis had infiltrated into Manipur due to the ‘push policy’ adopted by the Government of Myanmar back in 1967. If this is not enough then one wonders what more would be needed to spell out the truth and the reality, which can have a huge impact in the region in the coming days.