There are a couple of things in the murky rivers of Indian politics that are only made in Manipur beginning from the early 1990s when a senior legislator went and urinated on the Chair of the Speaker of the Manipur legislative Assembly as he was he was standing in the way of his bid to topple the then government in power and install a government to be headed by him. The ‘leader ’ in question had also taken fellow legislators to show the wet spot on the chair. A year or so later, MLAs armed with revolvers and pistols had stormed the same Speaker’s office in a bid to kill him. A highly agitated MLA had then told this writer, “Tamo (Big brother), I had gone to kill him, but he has locked himself up in his room, hence the failure to shoot him dead”, brandishing his revolver. The provocation was the Speaker’s interpretation of the 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, whereby he would disqualify MLAs at his discretion. This had happened with the police standing as mute spectators under orders from the chief minister outside the Assembly complex.
Where on earth can you ‘pay’ MLAs to do these acts? But in Manipur, they were doing it for free, hence my description of Manipur as a ‘Reporter’s Paradise’. Fast track to the 2020s when all hell broke loose on the 3rd of May 2023. Then followed a period of mayhem when people would shoot and kill and burn each other’s homes and villages with the security forces standing and watching. Then came the case of the Central Security forces blocking the path of the state police, giving chase to culprits belonging to the Kuki community fleeing after having attacked Meitei settlements. Then came the dark phase when any criticism of the then chief minister in power would be deemed criticism of him for being anti-state or anti-Meitei, the community to which he belongs. The place of residence of this writer came under heavy gun attacks thrice for having criticised him, and was also later abducted at gunpoint by an armed group close to him.
Then the Shoguns in New Delhi’s North Block decided that Manipur was fast becoming an international embarrassment having being featured in an resolution of the European Parliament and finding echoes across Africa and America so they decided to show the door to their own BJP chief minister N Biren Singh and made him throw in the towel in February earlier and imposed President’s Rule in the state keeping the Assembly under animated suspension. Then they brought in their own Meiji in the form of former Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla to be the Governor, and it was expected that he would initiate a Meiji restoration as it had happened in Japan earlier at the end of the Tokugawa period. It was expected that the restoration of a semblance of law and order was on his top priority list. He began his crusade by asking those in possession of illegal arms, including those looted earlier from police armouries, to surrender within a stipulated time frame. Some 300-plus firearms were deposited by Arambai Tengol, the radical Meitei group, which was at the forefront on behalf of the Meiteis in the ongoing war between the Meiteis and the Kukis. The Kukis, however, never heeded the call of the Governor and had made only a token surrender, and no proactive actions had been initiated to recover the arms from the Kuki militants, which included the latest US-made military hardware.
Three months down the line, the exchange of fire between the warring sides had ceased, and perhaps the administration thought that perhaps had come to mark it with a celebration. Thus, it was announced that the fifth edition of the Shirui Lily festival would be held this year. The Shirui Lily (Lilium mackliniae) is the state flower of Manipur and is grown in the lofty heights of the Shirui mountains in Ukhrul district at an elevation of some 7,500 feet above mean sea level, and at night, one can see lights from streamers plying the Chindwin river in Myanmar in the east. The state government soon announced a grant of Rs 26 crores for the festival. The director of tourism also soon addressed the Press that adequate security forces would be deployed to ensure the safe passage of the Meiteis travelling some 90 kilometres to Ukhrul for participation in the festival. This was against the light that a Kuki group openly declared that no Meiteis would be allowed to travel through Kuki areas en route to Shirui. This had prompted a response from the mighty NSCN(I-M) declaring that there are no Kuki areas in Ukhrul and that they have not taken too lightly the threats meted out to the Meiteis.
Thus, on the 20th of May, when almost all roads in Manipur led to Shirui village in Ukhrul, a team of 20 journalists boarded a Manipur State Transport bus at 7.30 a.m. in Imphal. The team was also escorted by officials of the directorate of public relations of the government of Manipur and was scheduled to be at Ukhrul by 10.30 a.m. to cover the inauguration of the festival by the Hon’ble Governor Ajay Bhalla. But unknown to Governor Bhalla, all hell was about to break loose across the state, an overzealous act of the army. The army belonging to the 4th Mahar Regiment at their Gwaltabi Post, about 50 kilometres from Imphal, had halted the bus ferrying the team of journalists and committed the most profane act, tantamount to almost sacrilege. The jawans and their officer present knew that the team consisted of scribes en route to cover the function to be opened by the governor of the state, under whose directive they were on duty, posted at the checkpoint.
It is not clear whether a non-commissioned officer (Havildar) or a proper commissioned officer gave the fateful order, but the army personnel present there had singled out the bus carrying the media team. They were not frisked for concealed weapons or subjected to questioning as to their destination or purpose of the journey, but were simply told to conceal the word Manipur on the front windshield of the bus, which read ‘MANIPUR STATE TRANSPORT’. It was as if attending a state-level function sponsored by the state government of Manipur, carrying a team of journalists sponsored by the state’s information department, was ‘persona non grata’ if they were travelling in a vehicle that had the word written in bold letters. The army operation is reportedly the brainchild of security advisor Kuldiep Singh, likely communicated through the commanding officer. It appears to have been carried out with the intention of not provoking the Kuki ‘separatists,’ reflecting a form of appeasement—suggesting, for instance, ‘Look, we even removed the word Manipur from the buses’—in deference to their strong aversion to the term Manipur.
Little did the army personnel involved realise that their action would lead to an explosion that would echo through the entire state and across almost all sections of the people. First, the journos reacted in a manner seldom seen before. Earlier, they would protest against the actions of the non-state actors trying to force their point of view across and occasionally against police action. But this time, they were against the state, questioning the motive of removing the word Manipur, inter alia, an event being organised by the state government of Manipur. The All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) and the Editors Guild Manipur (EGM) convened an emergency meeting and marched to the Raj Bhawan to submit a memorandum to Governor Bhalla and clashed with the police twice en route. Then they stopped publishing the next day as a mark of protest. Then the coordinating committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) went on an overdrive. They also convened an emergency meeting and declared a 48-hour statewide general strike beginning from midnight of 21 May, barring all except for visitors of the Shirui Lily festival and essential services, including media.
The COCOMI then described the Gwaltabi incident, where the mishap took place, as not a trivial matter and as such cannot be taken lightly. It brayed for the heads of the chief secretary, the security advisor and the director general of police, demanding the resignation of the three from their posts immediately. Speaking to the media, Khuraijam Athouba, convenor of the COCOMI, said that the conduct of the army in erasing the word Manipur from the state-owned bus tantamounts to being anti-Manipur and a direct challenge to the idea of Manipur exhibiting disregard for the state’s historical and cultural identity and also demanded an apology from governor Bhalla. Speaking to The Statesman, Bhakta Asem, president, AMWJU, said that the boycott of all government-related news continues, and the government has been given 15 days to come out with the findings of the Inquiry report. He added that the army could not have acted independently on it’s own but was following the directive of someone in the civil administration It may be added here that chief secretary P K Singh had issued an order the next day i.e the 21 May constituting an inquiry committee to be headed by home commissioner Ashoke Singh and Th Kirankumar Secretary (IT). Surprisingly, the Army has not come out with any statement as such till now, except for a news item purportedly in The Statesman stating that the army had removed the Manipur sign from the bus, keeping public security in mind in the run-up to the event.
Meanwhile, political parties have strongly condemned the incident. Former chief minister and Congress Legislative Party leader Okram Ibobi Singh criticised the current President’s Rule administration under Bhalla, accusing it of double standards. He pointed out the contradiction in claiming to uphold the integrity of Manipur while simultaneously allowing actions that undermine the very idea of the state.
At the same time, Meitei women volunteers have been seen intercepting army vehicles and placing posters reading “Manipur” on their windshields as a form of protest.
Separately, troops from the Assam Rifles killed ten Kuki rebels in the Molcham area earlier this month. They claimed the rebels had crossed over from Myanmar to disrupt the ongoing construction of border fencing. However, this action has drawn sharp criticism from the National Unity Government of Myanmar (the government-in-exile), which has called for an inquiry and even demanded compensation.
The latest edition of the ‘Made in Manipur’ series is making enough sounds, not that of bombs and bullets, but that of hushed sounds asking as to whether Manipur really exists in the minds of the people at the helm of affairs in the country.
The writer is a senior journalist at The Statesman. Views expressed are personal.