The Delhi Meetei Co-ordinating Committee (DMCC) on Tuesday appealed to the central government to restore peace, rule of law, and ensure peaceful co-existence in strife-torn Manipur.
In the last one year, the Meetei community, an ethnic group to native Manipur, has been selectively targeted, attacked, isolated and victimized, it said.
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“Manipur is a part of India and its law and order is on the shoulder of the central government. Since they have failed to protect life and liberty, it is a complete failure on their part,” says journalist Yambem Laba.
On May 28 2023, 13 Meetei villages went through a brutally coordinated attack by the Kuki militant group, injuring nearly 44 people.
This security lapse occurred when the Chief of Army staff, General Manoj Panday was stationed in Imphal, before the arrival of Home Minister, Amit Shah, the journalist said.
The first major attack where houses were burned down was carried out on May 3, 2023. This attack also happened while the Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankar was visiting Manipur, he said.
The bigger question which depicts the complexity of the conflict is, who is responsible for these attacks and why aren’t they being stopped? Laba replied, “If the Government wanted to control the violence, they could’ve done it within weeks by deploying an army like that in Gujarat Riots. Instead, they have just created artificial buffer zones in the state unlike anywhere in India.”
The DMCC members collectively feel that the government is “sleeping” for one year 29 days, and this a conspiracy theory to make the two communities (Kuki and Meetei) clash against each other.
Hijam Rajen, advisor to DMCC, commented on the Centre’s ‘negligence’ and said, “It is questionable how Prime Minister Narendra Modi is using the ‘M’ factor during the elections by using words like ‘Muslims’, ‘Mangalsutra’ and ‘Machli’ , but is never focusing on ‘Manipur’.”
