Dimapur, July 23 (MExN): The Working Committee, Naga National Political Groups (WC, NNPGs) today questioned the Government of India (GoI) handling of the ongoing turmoil in Manipur and stated the image of India as a “tolerant, secular and vibrant democracy will never be the same again.”
The political leadership of India has committed a self-goal by taking a “wait and watch approach, hoping to score electoral points by playing communal card, rather than talking and walking the path of unity in diversity,” the WC, NNPGs asserted in a statement issued via its media cell.
This has resulted in unabated continuity of violence in the State, it added, while apprehending “frightening and unimaginable” future ramification of the present issue in the North East India, whose socio-economic, religious and cultural, political and historical landscape historically is “too fragile historically” as it is.
The destruction of democratic ideals is visible in the present turmoil, the WC, NNPGs said, adding that “thousand years neighbourly co-existence between Nagas, Meiteis and Kukis have taken a brutal beating.”
Hence, it asserted that the GoI has failed the communities again by setting “fire to its own tent in Manipur,” with potential to spread further.
In this connection, the WC, NNPGs underscored that the affected communities themselves, through civil “societies and sane community leaders, allow reason and conscience to overcome violent and destructive philosophy at play.”
“Elections will come and go, Government will come and go, Prime Ministers and Home Ministers will come and go but the very people and communities will continue to co-own, co-exist in the hills and valleys, for generations,” it added.
Giving a context to its stance, the WC, NNPGs stated that the “carnage, destruction and death” in Manipur is unprecedented in post independent India.
While the epicentre is Manipur, the tremor is being felt in the US, European Union Parliament and around the world, it noted.
“Those meant to protect India's democracy in Manipur have failed, sold their souls to party politics and communal demons,” it asserted.
The GoI has allowed its much-touted democracy to be “stripped off all its garments, pluck all the jewels off India's secular crown,” it added, further arguing that the ongoing event has not even witnessed in “restive, Middle East, Afghanistan or in the current Russia-Ukraine conflict.”
The WC, NNPGs also maintained that the “silent non-violent peace protest by tribal communities” on May 3, 2023 against Meitei's demand for ST (Scheduled Tribe) status gave the ruling dispensation in Manipur to “abandon fort” and allow the dominant community, “aided and assisted by state forces to snatch thousands of automatic and semi-automatic weapons and huge round of ammunitions from state armouries and weapon depots.”
There is a “clear undeniable communal and religious facets” to the present turmoil and it was “premeditated,” it claimed.
“Clearly religious doctrinal pursuit is being enforced at the cost of secular spirit and ethos of founding fathers of the Indian constitution” and the Manipur state government and GoI leadership cannot claim innocence, it added.
Maintaining that reported “ransacking, burning down of more than two hundred Churches” is neither tolerant nor secular, it further said that the Meitei community must explain the logic behind the burning down of their own community Christian Churches in Imphal valley.
“If Kukis were Narco terrorists, as Biren Singh's narrative says, what were Meitei Christians and why their Churches had to be torched?,” WC, NNPGs posed.
To this end, it stated that it was unacceptable perpetration of “ethnic cleansing based of faith and religion” and asserted that the Naga people will not stay silent against “dangerous, intolerant religious fanaticism at work.”
Touching upon the recent viral video, the WC, NNPGs argued that it was “inhuman and intolerable that Meitei men would forcefully parade naked women and girls of other communities and go on to sexually assault them.”
“This is a crime against humanity,” it added. “As history shows, sexual violence against women is a part of state sponsored ethno-religious terrorism.”
The WC, NNPGs also considered it an “ignominious record” that the present state Government in Manipur is still standing “even after nearly three months of absolute anarchy and bloodbath.”
As such, it reiterated that Manipur turmoil is a “failed GoI policy which has weakened the very foundation of India's North-Eastern flank” and had shaken its core.
