Valley vs the hills

The Biren Singh government failed to prevent the Manipur violence. It makes the job of restoring peace all the more difficult

- RABI BANERJEE

CURFEW HOURS WERE drawing near as I drove out of the Imphal airport on May 25. Outside, youngsters rode bicycles, women walked the pavements, and people chatted in shops.

I headed to Bishnupur, around 30km south of Imphal. It was here that groups affiliated to the Meitei community first formed a human chain in February demanding to be included in the scheduled tribes list. The issue escalated in April, after the Manipur High Court directed the state government to send a recommendation to the Centre favouring the protesters. Ethnic clashes soon erupted between the Meiteis in the valley and the Kuki tribals in the surrounding hills. More than 70 people across Manipur died in clashes that started on May 3, forcing the government to impose curfew and issue shoot-at-sight orders in violent pockets.

By the time I reached Bishnupur, dusk had fallen. An Army contingent was stopped by a human chain of Meitei women. “You come here and kill our people?” shouted the women, most of them elderly. “You side with Kuki terrorists—you have no rights to stay here.”

A junior commissioned officer in the contingent greeted them with folded hands. “No harsh responses, please,” he told his colleagues. “The protesters are just desperate.”

The JCO told the women, and the men behind the human chain, that they had come to save people of all ethnicities. Many Meiteis in Bishnupur district were caught in conflict zones, he said, and the troops were trying to rescue them. “We need to save the Kukis as well,” said the JCO. “But we are not siding with them.”

The contingent was held up for more than 30 minutes before it was finally allowed to pass. Apparently, it was part of the brigade that had been deployed in the district to prevent further Kuki-Meitei clashes.