Protesting against the Govt Why were Meiteis targeted ?

Raise demands to the Government but don’t target Meiteis. This is from a leader of the Pambei led UNLF during the observance function of UN Day organised by the World Human Rights Protection Organisation on October 24 at Manipur Press Club. A line which The Sangai Express has been expounding ever since the ongoing ethnic violence erupted in the evening of May 3, 2023. Manipur has seen protests, demands,  blockades, bandhs etc all in the pursuit of a demand or two but never once has it ever got reduced to the exercise of targeting any community and a look back at some of the high profile protests will testify this. Manipur went up in flames on June 18, 2001 when Imphal and the valley districts rose as one to protest the decision of the Government of India to insert the words ‘without territorial limits’ in the ceasefire agreement inked with the NSCN (IM). Eighteen people were killed in the series of protests that followed the June 18, 2001 uprising and Imphal resembled a ghost town with curfew clamped round the clock. The trouble subsided only when the said words were deleted from the Bangkok Agreement, as it became known to the world. In the days of violence that followed after June 18, 2001 not once were members of any community targeted. The agitation was against the Government of India and its decision to ink the Bangkok Agreement. Likewise Manipur has seen many large scale protests and the mass protest held following the reported assault of a popular film actress in 2012, never got reduced to the exercise of targeting members of any community. The protest was against the conduct of an element who happened to belong to the NSCN (IM). It was the same when the Nagas rose in protest against the decision of the State Government to bar the visit of NSCN (IM) supremo Thuingaleng Muivah to his native village in 2010. The Mao protest that erupted after the entry of the NSCN (IM) Th Muivah was prohibited was against the decision of the State Government and not once were Meiteis targeted in any of the Naga dominated districts. These are but some instances that come to mind and it is on the premise of these cases that The Sangai Express had been questioning why Torbung was attacked and Meitei leikais at Chura-chandpur were targeted in the evening of May 3, 2023. No answer to this has been forthcoming in the last 18 months or so, though this question has been raised repeatedly in this column. If the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023 was against the directive of the High Court of Manipur to send the socio-economic report of the Meiteis as sought by the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry to consider the demand that the Meiteis be included in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Constitution, then where was the need to target the Meitei settlements at Torbung and which quickly spread to Churachandpur ?
As news of the attack on the Meitei settlements at Torbung and Churachandpur and which quickly spread to Kangpokpi and then to Moreh spread, Imphal retaliated but only late in the evening of May 3, 2023. A point underlined by the fact that in the evening of May 3, 2023, a Kuki gentleman, a former MLA dropped in at the office of The Sangai Express to inquire about a news report. This is not about going back to the beginning of the clash but is more about raising the question of why a grievance against the Government or even the ruling of the High Court should be reduced to an  exercise of targeting the Meiteis. No Kuki organisation has ever deemed it fit to address this point and it is not likely that they will volunteer to answer this question. It was clear that tension was already running very high at Churachandpur in the days leading to the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023 and it is precisely because of this that The Sangai Express had questioned why the rally was allowed to be staged at all. Things should be clear. Protest may be staged against any policy and programme of the Government but this should not mean that any disagreement with the Government should turn into an exercise of targeting any other community. Unfortunately, events which came very close to the understanding of a design, was what was seen on May 3, 2023 at Torbung and Churachandpur and this is where the profundity of the line ‘raise demands to the Government, but don’t target people of any other community’ lies. And the series of false narratives that were fed to the outside world falls perfectly in line with the attack on a community when the supposed grievances were against the Government. Herein lies the lies.