New Delhi:
Nothing is more important than ensuring the rule of law and disarming all armed groups in violence-hit Manipur to bring peace, former Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court Siddharth Mridul said at an event in Delhi on Tuesday.
When asked by NDTV about reports that some civil society organizations are threatening internally displaced persons, or IDPs, to return to what is left of their homes to rebuild them with government support and security, Justice Mridul said: “ The displaced are not their homes.” (some organizations) hostages. Let’s be clear.’
“They can return home, provided we create an environment conducive to their return home, which brings us back to the rule of law. Once law and order are restored and there is rule of law, and groups are disarmed of all illegal weapons they possess, looted or smuggled, and talks are underway under the auspices of the government, that is the only way forward, apart from external factors because I am interested in Manipur. I am sure there are external factors but I am not an expert on that,” said Justice Mridul, who served as Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court from October 2023 until his retirement last month.
At least 50,000 people from both the valley-dominant Meitei community and more than a dozen different tribes collectively known as Kuki, which are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, have been displaced since ethnic clashes between the two began in May 2023 .
The Kuki tribes also include ‘Any Kuki Tribes’, which was added to the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST) in 2003 when the Congress was in power in the state, led by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.
Justice Mridul reiterated what the Supreme Court said in November 2023 about ‘keeping the pot boiling’ while hearing the report of a court-appointed committee that noted disturbing actions by civil society organizations that have helped fuel ethnic tensions in Manipur continue to simmer.
“…The reason why I believe that there is someone interested in keeping the pot boiling is that every time the situation seems to normalize, there is a new injection of violence, which makes me believe that there are forces – and if I were to believe the general that the forces are external, not internal. Even if the forces are external, they have local collaborators who ensure that the agenda of keeping Manipur burning is vigorously pursued,” Justice Mridul said, referring to it. a presentation by the general Rajan Kochhar (retired) at the event in Delhi.
“I’m starting to subscribe to the idea that there seems to be an invisible hand. Whose hand it is is not yet clear to me. There could be a number of factors at play,” he said.
Justice Mridul had worked closely with the state authorities during his stay in Manipur. He said that while there have been periods of absence of violence, normalcy has not been restored in Manipur at any stage since May last year.
“…You have to understand the separation of powers. My interaction with the executive was purely to ensure that the judiciary could perform its function. These are not political discussions, they can never be political discussions. But the impression that what I got was that – I could be wrong, I could be terribly wrong – no one seems to be in charge of the ship,” he said.
“The point is that there is disarmament until then, until the weapons that have been looted, taken away or whatever are recovered, and until the people with weapons smuggled across the border are intercepted and their weapons taken from them. “There is no possibility of peace returning to Manipur,” Justice Mridul said. “Armed people will not allow you to return to your homes or live peacefully.”
“Trust is important”: Major General Rajan Kochhar (retired)
Major General Kochhar said trust is the most important factor to normalize Manipur.
“Without trust, there will be all kinds of forces – you can call them internal, you can call them external – that will widen the gap. After listening to everyone here. Everyone agrees that there should be peace there. How this peace is to be achieved is the big question,” said Major General Kochhar, VSM, who retired after 37 years of service.
“A large number of people have come to Manipur from Myanmar… It is very important for the local community to identify militants among the citizens. It is the responsibility of the community. Unless we do that, we will create buffer zones within our That can’t happen. A buffer zone is created between two countries at war to prevent the war from escalating. Golan Heights, Syria, there was a buffer zone, the Blue Line. How can you have a buffer zone within your own zone? That is the bigger question that I think both communities need to answer,” Major General Kochhar said.
Dr. Arambam Noni, associate professor at DM University Imphal and one of the speakers at the Delhi event, expanded on his commentary on the “untenable and outdated question” of an ethnocentric homeland at a side event of the 57th session. of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva in early October.
Ethnocentric homeland
‘Ethnopolitical leaders are playing a dangerous game. They want to put an end to overlapping spaces. When they end overlapping spaces in a state like Manipur, inhabited by 35 officially recognized communities, some of which have only 600 or 1,000 inhabitants, their existence is under pressure. Allowing these overlapping spaces to end will only serve to increase the demand for ethnocentric political spaces. And that is a very, very dangerous ethnocentric homeland because the Constitution doesn’t really recognize the possibility of an ethnocentric homeland,” Dr. Noni said.
He said the question of whether the modern state can afford to allow the incessant movement of population across borders in the name of culture, or whether the modern state can accommodate them, needs an answer.
“Do you have a mechanism in the modern state system to enable these free-flowing population movements, not only for cultural solidarity but also for territorial solidarity? That is problematic. I don’t think modern states normally have such a mechanism to deal with these problems.” continued territorial violation of identities, because modern states are basically based on fixed territoriality and sovereignty. What is happening in northeastern India is the porosity of the fixed idea of a state.
“I don’t see any problem in the cultural transition of people across borders. But I see a problem in the continued reconciliation of identities for ethnocentric homelands. That will obviously create a conflict with overlapping spaces like Manipur, which is a multicultural state. That said, I think our problem is very complex. Weaponizing identity is not good, because micro-identities feel increasingly threatened they believe… because there are other aspects of our social world, and we also need to recognize the resources that can unite people, not divide them.
Not a comfortable life in relief camps
“Institutions must be democratized. There must be fair development and redistribution of resources… The other suggestion I would like to make is – as Judge Mridul has already said – that you should allow displaced persons to return home because that is their fundamental right. You cannot give them a comfortable life in relief camps,” Dr Noni said at the panel discussion ‘Understanding the Barriers of Northeast India and Manipur Violence: The Way Forward’ organized by TMP Manipur, Meitei. Alliance and the Manipur International Youth Centre.
This is the second winter that the displaced people in Manipur are spending in relief camps.
The 10 MLAs from the Kuki tribes, the Zo people and their civil society groups have said talks are not possible unless Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh resigns. The Kuki tribes also blame him for allegedly triggering the Manipur crisis; they reinforced this claim with the controversy over leaked tapes.
Kuki leaders have demanded a political solution in the form of a separate government before other issues, including the return of thousands of people living in relief camps, can be discussed.
Meitei leaders have cited this condition to argue that Kuki leaders are creating an ethnocentric demand for a homeland; The Meitei leaders’ argument is that the talks can continue while at the same time people living in difficult conditions in the camps can also return home, as no area is ethnically exclusive.
There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei dominated valley districts.
The general category of Meiteis wants to be included in the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis, who share ethnic ties with people in neighboring Chin State and Mizoram in Myanmar, have cited discrimination and unequal distribution of resources and power among the Meiteis as some of the reasons behind their cries for divorce.