Group of former bureaucrats call out Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh

 CM ‘demonised’ a community, Prime Minister made ‘no statement that could initiate dialogue’

A protest organised by the Delhi Meitei Coordinating Committee on Jantar Mantar road in New Delhi on Sunday against the ongoing violence in Manipur.

Basant Kumar Mohanty, TT, New Delhi, 07.08.23 : A group of former bureaucrats has accused Manipur’s BJP government of “dereliction” of its “fundamental duty” to protect the life and property of citizens, condemned the “deliberately orchestrated and targeted carnage” and criticised chief minister N. Biren Singh for “stoking” inflamed passions through “dog whistles”.

The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), an independent association of former civil servants, also pointed to the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the crisis and in an open statement called for President’s rule in the strife-torn state. The former bureaucrats said the ongoing conflict “threatened not just the social fabric of Manipur but called into question the very spirit of harmony and fraternity that is the foundation of India’s unity in diversity”.

“We wish to strongly highlight the dereliction of their fundamental duty by the Manipur state government and the state police in protecting the life and property of their citizens. This has created the conditions for a complete breakdown of law and order, with a deliberately orchestrated and targeted carnage that has included large-scale arson, lynching, collective rape, vandalism, looting, mob violence and obstruction of central security forces from carrying out their duties, followed by armed attacks and retaliation by both communities,” the statement said.

A protest against the Manipur violence in Ahmedabad on Saturday.: PTI picture

The statement pointed out that chief minister Singh had been “partisan” and had “demonised” a particular community as “illegal migrants”, “poppy cultivators”, “encroachers”, “narco-terrorists” and “terrorists”.

“These dog whistles, which tend to smear an entire community, have served to excite the passions of the majority community to which the chief minister belongs. A high constitutional functionary, like the chief minister, is expected to restore the rule of law and take steps to cool inflamed passions, rather than stoke them further,” the CCG said.

Apart from Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Manipur, there has been no active political involvement from the Centre in establishing peace between the warring communities, the ex-bureaucrats said.

The CCG said the Modi government and the Manipur dispensation had been “blissfully unaware” of the brutality on two women who were paraded naked and sexually assaulted

“Political expediency has won out: we are witness to the spectacle of a non-functioning Parliament at a time of crisis, with the Prime Minister making no statement in Parliament on the Manipur crisis, which would enable the initiation of a dialogue on the issue,” the retired bureaucrats said.

Christian community people stage a protest in Patiala on Sunday.: PTI picture

“We are even more appalled at the approach of the Union government to the ghastly events of the stripping and parading naked of two women, the alleged gangrape of one of them and the murder of two male members, all of the same family, on May 4. While expressing his outrage over the incident, outside Parliament rather than on the floor of either House, the Prime Minister seemed to draw an equivalence between this incident in Manipur and other incidents in states like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, though the incidents are not at all comparable. There was no explanation of how his government and the Manipur state government were blissfully unaware of this heinous incident despite the filing of an FIR over two months ago,” the CCG said.

According to the former civil servants, the government’s announcement of a panel headed by a retired high court judge to investigate the reasons for the conflict and identify those behind the violence would not be enough to heal the wounds and the severe trust deficit between the Kuki and Meitei communities, or address the lack of confidence of the minority Kukis in the impartial conduct of the state government and the police.

The CCG sought continued deployment of the army, the Assam Rifles and central paramilitary forces in Manipur.

“The intent of the perpetrators of this violence and their instigators is to use women’s bodies for signalling dominance. Failure to nip such perverted tendencies in the bud can lead to escalation in conflict and make reconciliation difficult,” the CCGsaid.

The Internet ban, lifted only partially on July 25, has ensured that visuals of the atrocities do not reach the outside world, while providing grist to rumour-mongering and the spread of fake news, the CCG said. The failure of the state has allowed the raiding of police armouries by perpetrators of the violence, the group added.

The group demanded the immediate imposition of President’s rule in Manipur, “relief and rehabilitation measures as well as compensation to affected individuals/ families in a non-partisan manner, with the aim of bringing back normalcy at the earliest”, and “severe punitive action against individuals and groups intent on fomenting unrest, including bringing to justice all the instigators and perpetrators of incidents of violence since the beginning of May, firmly checking hate speech, rounding up looted arms and ammunition and putting an end to offensive attacks against other communities”.