Being Politically Correct: The Kukis have everything to Gain; the Meiteis have everything to Lose

Since May 3, 2023, the Kuki-Zo community has been at the receiving end of the state-sponsored ethnic cleansing campaign in the hands of the dominant community. So far, 164 have lost their lives, 200+ villages (7000+ houses), 360+ churches and other places of worship have been burnt, and 41,425 people were displaced from their homes. Moreover, nearly a hundred have died in the relief camps for lack of medical care and financial constrictions and many are helplessly waiting for their end.

Among the most dreadful incidents are those involving women being paraded naked, gangraped, and murdered. A few survivors who are still struggling to overcome the trauma are living testimonies. The way David Thiek was murdered, a video in which his head was hanged over a fencing pole went viral, is something nobody would have imagined in this civilised world.

Even after nine months, the attack on Kuki villages and their properties continues unabated. In the latest one such incident, a house in Chikim Veng, Moreh, was burnt by the Meitei Police Commandos (CDOs) on 18 February 2024. Since the beginning of January 2024, these CDOs have burnt at least three schools, one church and several houses in Moreh alone.

Though the current conflict is often considered as a clash between two ethnicities, the Kukis and the Meiteis, it is not really so in the sense that the Kukis are a minority community and the Meiteis who constitute the politically dominant community are openly supported by the State Government. In many cases, the Central Forces who are supposed to remain neutral appear biased towards the dominant community especially when its commanding officers are Meiteis. The presence of Meitei officers such as Col. Akash Oinam, Lt. Col. Nectar Sanjenbam, the SSP (Combat) of Tengnoupal district, etc. during violence on ethnic line is simply ridiculous unless the intention is to annihilate the minority Kuki-Zo. To borrow a phrase from Professor Bimol Akoijam, “it is understandable, but not acceptable” that Meitei military officers take sides, but what is beyond our imagination is how officers belonging to one of the warring communities are being deployed in the sensitive buffer zones such as Dolaithabi-Saikul area and the strategic Tengnoupal district in which Moreh in a part.  

Among the legal fraternity, there is a common saying: “they [people in power] cannot violate the law, but can always bend.” This perfectly suits the dominant community who are now in control of the whole system. Whereas any Kuki-Zo who is critical of the state may be slapped with FIRs, or arrested even on mere suspicions, the Meiteis can roam freely in full combat, extort money, kidnapped any persons and take away their cars, and speak or write anything without concern for the law. This is possible because they know they will be protected by their "Big Brother" Mr. Biren Singh whom they fondly call "Pabung" (Daddy)!

Now that the ethnic clash is entering its tenth month without any sign of abating, and both sides adamant on their demands – the Kukis for a Separate Administration, and the Meiteis on wiping out the Kukis from Kangleipak – it is unlikely that they will find a common ground soon. What is also curious is how the other ethnic group, i.e. the Manipuri Nagas, chose to remain neutral, the same way the Meiteis did during the Kuki-Naga clash in the 1990s. Being neutral in a situation like this is not neutrality in the true sense, but siding with the perpetrators of the crime!

For in this war, the Meiteis as the dominant community in control of the state system gets the upper hand with an uninterrupted supply of arms and ammunition from the state armouries, and sometimes from the Central Forces as in the case of Moreh where they reportedly provided ammunition and security coverage to the Meitei intruders. Moreover, these intruders into the Kuki-Zo territory also impudently burn houses, schools and church in the presence of the Central Forces.

Whatever has happened so far in Manipur is not only extremely unfortunate but also something the Kukis have never imagined. Considering the kind of cordial relationship they had with the Meiteis for centuries, it was but natural that not even in their wildest dream did they anticipated to be made the soft target while they were least prepared.

Now, that the Kukis have suffered enough and lost too many lives and properties, it is no longer possible for them to imagine living together with the Meiteis again. In terms of casualties, the manner in which their women and children were subjected to, and how they have been demonised, the Kukis can now only think of living outside the territory of the Meiteis.

In the same way, the Meiteis have chewed more than what they could. Their dreams of re-establishing a sovereign Kangleipak Kingdom, however utopian it was, had been shattered with the symbolic titular King becoming an elected MP (Rajya Sabha). They can neither expand the territory of Kangleipak nor push for sovereignty as the VBIGs' hideouts in Burma are destroyed one after another by the democratic forces. In fact, the politics of the Meiteis as an imagined "nation" have practically ended!

For them, the demand for pre-merger status, amendment of Article 3, ST status for Meitei/Meetei, border fencing, abrogation of FMR (or the Free Regime Movement), abrogation of SOO (Suspension of Operation) with Kuki militants, updating of NRC (National Register for Citizens), deportation of Myanmar Refugees in Manipur to Mizoram, and most importantly the genocidal slogan to wipe out all the Kukis from Manipur, all seems to be the cry of a desperate and confused community with nothing to benefit them in return. Even if any or some of these demands are achieved, there is practically nothing the Meiteis will get except some kind of xenophobic gratification.

However, in their desperate attempt to appear politically correct in the eyes of mainland Indians and the outside world, the Meiteis have been pressing one demand after another, blaming all viruses that ail their society to the Kukis. Remember a Meitei drug addict filed a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) in the Supreme Court against a man [Kuki] earlier arrested but released almost ten years ago on the charge that he was responsible for making him use drugs! In a viral [X-Space] video a few months ago, a Meitei man emotionally charged his fellow Meiteis to blame the Kukis for anything that happens under the sky including "mosquito bites" and "cough". Such attempt at scapegoating the Kukis which appear delightful in the eyes of the innocent Meiteis seems to have become quite productive.

In the process, the Meitei community has been widening the already deep rooted hill-valley divide, thereby speeding up the process of "separation." In fact, the Meiteis have started a war with the hope that they will wipe out the whole Kuki community from the soil of Manipur. Now that they failed miserably, there is practically nothing they might gain from this war. They may have looted properties worth crores left behind in Imphal, occupied buildings and offices as theirs, and even claimed ownership of the plots owned by the Kukis, but all these wouldn't stand in the law court someday if India continues to exist as a secular, democratic country.

Meanwhile, the Kukis have everything to gain politically, be it in the form of a Union Territory, State, or any other administrative arrangements deemed fit by the Centre. In fact, the terms "Kuki", and "Kuki-Zo", have become a household name for people following the current ethnic turmoil from different parts of the world. The systematic targeting of the minority Kuki-Zo by the dominant community also unified them more than ever. It also brought some semblance of cooperation with the Nagas which has been missing as a result of the dominant community's divide and rule policy for decades.

In contrast, the Meiteis have nothing to gain politically. In fact the term "Meitei" has become synonymous with "rapists", "liars", "looters" (in broad daylight), a community who paraded women naked and gangraped in the open field, and their mothers giving away a girl to their boys instead of protecting her (just the opposite to what the women of Lamka did). Even if this war continues for a longer period of time, it wouldn't serve a purpose for them. They can only lose what they have cherished for decades such as the territorial integrity of Manipur, and the hard-earned fair-weather brotherhood with the Nagas on whom patience seems to have been running out for the constant atrocities meted out to their tribesmen and tribeswomen. Anyway, Manipur as a political entity inhabited by the Meiteis, Nagas, and Kukis as the three major ethnicities seems to be nearing its end every passing day!

 

(Courtesy: KSO Bulletin Thingkho le Malcha, Issue No.165, February 25, 2024)