The case of Manorama Devi was important. It was important because it pricked the conscience of all. It was about gross violation of Human Rights. It was rape. Rape that is unfamiliar to the civilization of Indigenous peoples. It was committed by Armed forces who are empowered with unquestionable authority under ‘Armed Forces Special Powers Act’(AFSPA). The crime was twisted and contested and justice had to be sought.
Selective response: Many social organizations and movements condemned the act. The people of Imphal valley reacted and responded rightfully using different means permitted in a democratic set up ranging from protests, rallies, bandhs to the daring and sensational exhibition of the eleven naked women challenging the offenders in front of the barricaded Kangla fort. It demonstrated peoples’ power. People came out in large numbers protesting in person and in papers. Half the credit goes to local print medias and also community established websites that effectively highlighted and placed the issue before all, forming, shaping and garnering public opinion and support in the way they wanted to. It was the interaction of these efforts that really helped strengthen the issue and gain the wide publicity they so deserve. All these efforts could have been more meaningful and could have projected the apt nature of the people of Manipur in upholding Human rights if the reactions and the responses had been the same for the same crime of rape but without meaning to belittle Manorama, more horrendous in nature because i)the act was committed on girls between the age of 13 and14, juveniles who are yet to become women ii) They were repeatedly raped by different men iii)Some were raped before the eyes of the family iv) The crime was committed by non state armed groups who are supposed to wage a war with the state and not with the people.
Illegitimate warfare: An ordeal of 12 days have left a nightmare in the district of Churachandpur especially in Tipaimukh, Thanlon and Henglep. Some hard facts were that villagers were restricted to go for their livelihood work. Tax was imposed. Indiscriminate firing and bombing in the village causing deaths. People were forbidden to pray. Men, women and children were paraded and beaten up. The ultimate act was rape of 21 Hmar girls (The figures represents only the reported cases). It took 21 admitted and confirmed rape for the suppressed truth to come out. People of Churachandpur for long have put up with much atrocities and violence which is state sponsored and/or otherwise-operations, counter operations and its aftermath. These atrocities are committed on people caught in a warfare that do not belong to them. The war is between the state and valley based armed groups. What is alarming is the fact that rape as an instrument of warfare that is used by state military forces in the ‘Northeast’ here is being used by the non state armed groups of the Imphal valley. Use of land mines in warfare have been abandoned by many organized and larger armed groups the world over but landmines have claimed and maimed many lives and continues to threatened normal lives of these people. These are believed to be planted randomly by the ‘insurgents’. The Churachandpur peoples plea to sanitized the area is yet to be fulfilled. People have left home for other friendlier states. They are displaced from their own roots and land and history by the effect of the war which is not their creation.
Denial and indifferent attitude: It took the strength and courage of twenty one girls who dared all social stigmas and threats to their lives to tell the world outside their landmine bound area and come out with what was being done to a people, but it is not strong enough to convince many who are not willing to come out against the crime. Systems have failed to play their roles- government, political institutions, media. They are playing it safe, worried about the backlashes from the armed groups even if gross atrocities have been committed on a community.
What is not helping is the denial by the perpetrators and rubbishing it off as “concocted stories” even after uncontestable testimonies of the twenty one girls and the convention of 10+ judicious social organizations and movements who went to the affected areas to come out with the painful truth that the crime was committed, not “concocted”. The state is not doing better but competing with the public who are taking an indifferent position and do not even wish to acknowledge the gravity of the crime. The state have set up a judicial enquiry on forced moral grounds. It however continues to display its apathy. The enquiry commission is set up in the valley of Imphal which is 300+ kms away from the place of the crime that inhibits the accessibility to the already beaten victims. Judging by past experiences and the way a judicial enquiry gets dragged and done one cannot expect much even in this case either.
Catch 22 situation: The greatest mistake the armed groups made was losing their ideology and principle and turning like the force they stood up to fight against. It is disturbing that the people who came out as defenders of human rights and justice becomes the perpetrators, emitting a negative image of even the serious and genuine struggling movements because the act is essentially anti people which is not a character of a revolution. It is important and more dignifying to acknowledge the truth rather than deny and suppress, and act on it to reclaim what they have lost as a movement. The local media especially print media used ‘inaccessibility’ as a reason for delayed reporting and coverage.
The apparent attempt to contain the case and equating it with Manorama or Chaobi’s case as ‘unfortunate incident that can happen to anybody’ makes no sense because of one simple fact that the context is entirely different. The appeal not to give a communal tone itself is communal given the pattern in which news and reports and even editorial columns appeared, which were systematically filtered in such a way that truth itself needs to be authenticated. For obvious reasons and communal sentiments the perpetrators are being defended even if they condemn the act as such. The Hmars on the other hand have all the right to view it as an attack to the community because the hurt is inflicted upon the community and humanity as a whole. It is also the accumulation of the discriminatory attitude of the state apparatus and also the valley people that leaves them with no choice but feel unsecured and threatened. They are “marginalized” and “discriminated” within the state they thought they belong. Interplay of such situations can create havoc if it goes out of hand.
The unseen design: One needs to also examine these dynamics against the backdrop of conflicts and movements with special reference to the ‘Northeast’. The danger in such a vulnerable situation is the propaganda that is created which blurs the subtle and subliminal truth of the matter- the truth which is important. The armed groups made the blunder of falling in the sinister design of the policy makers who are left with very less alternatives of policy other than divisive politics that has been effectively demonstrated in this episode. The state combed operation and the ideal result they would want is the ‘insurgents’ venting out their fury and terrorizing the innocent people which is dangerous and also proved successful in this case.
The state effectively pushed these armed groups to camp in the areas which they knew would produce the desired results without the need for them to work on it. They have done nothing to appease the situation because their policy is to divide people as much as they can. They derive strength for forced occupation from such incidents and divisions. It also gives them a chance to validate and justify AFSPA and reinforce the existing status quo under AFSPA. ‘Northeast’ continues to experience communal uprising giving opportunity to the state and policy makers to further strengthen their ‘solace giver’ image because people go to them for intervention when the unrest actually is an offshoot of the divisive policy of the state which we very often fail to read. The important lesson that can be learnt from yet another bad experience is that the issue within ‘Northeast’ and more precisely in Manipur cannot be solved by the state without peoples effort and initiative to dialogue with each other. We loose a genuine battle everytime we wage war on each other. We strengthen the state policy makers to further divide us everytime we run to them. It is important to get out of this trap. We have to extend support and solidarity to each other.
Hmars supplications: The Hmars are not asking anything beyond their basic rights they so well deserve as rightful citizens. Rehabilitation and repatriation of the displaced people, medical care especially for the rape victims, sanitizing their unsafe area. They do not ask anything from the perpetrators other than an apology. To the public they ask support to seek Justice.
“We believe in wrong and right and we choose right”
What have you chosen?
Tungshang Ningreichon
