Biren Indirectly Hints Govt's Responsiblity and Protection Extend Primarily to Meitei Civilians, Expressing Readiness to Engage in War If Deemed Necessary

Maya Angelou, an American memoirist, poet and civil rights activist, once said “Prejudice is the burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” This is the answer the present generation Meiteis shall give to their future generations when they are questioned, “What went wrong then?”

In the never-ending saga of Mr Biren Singh’s prejudice and hatred for the Kukis, he can be seen yet again racially slurring against the Kukis in his recent viral speech. He abused them and accused their languages as undeciphered ones, and born of unknown origin and worthy of being physically wrung by their neck. So much hatred for the Kukis comes with a promise for what he told his people that if necessary he himself would join the war to protect them. Since the death of hundreds and the Exodus of thousands of innocent Kukis from Manipur didn’t trigger him to take any action nor any harsh speech of this nature. Rather than redressing the grievances and the injustice meted out to the Kukis, he awarded the perpetrators heftily, with access to state force vehicles and their uniforms round the clock, setting aside other forms of aids he provides. This implies that he never considered the Kukis as his people, not now and neither before.

As an agent who works representing the state, Mr Biren Singh’s speech violated multiple basic Fundamental rights of the Kukis as guaranteed by the constitution viz. Article 14, Article 15(1) and Article 29(1). Further, his speech is violative of the exceptions under Article (19)(1), a reasonable restriction on grounds of public order, decency or morality, incitement of offence and defamation.

Article 14 clearly states the state shall not deny any person equality before the law and grants equal protection of laws within the territory of India. His differentiation of both the communities who are both Indians in every manner into two, one worthy of his protection and the other as nothing, is a complete violation of what is laid down in this article, the spirit of our constitution and that of India. We have a single form of citizenship system not dual citizenship like the USA, thus it is his responsibility to protect all Indians irrespective of their domicile, as an individual who works and represents the states through his official position. On the contrary, through his conduct he maligns “The State” itself.

Article 15(1) state that the state shall not discriminate against any citizen only on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. The word discrimination here means “to make an adverse distinction with regard to “or to distinguish unfavourably from others”. The word he used in his speech “Kadai da gi pok pa no su khang da ba” basically translates to “we don’t even know where they are born from.” It’s a well-known fact all mankind comes from his/her mother’s womb. Since his/her parents are Indians, his place of birth is somewhere in India. Biren might have his own harem, but he doesn’t have the authorization to disrespect other women and the offspring that she produces. Outright discrimination of our women based on their race and all of us on our place of birth is a violation of our fundamental rights under this article. With this attitude, it is unsurprising that it needed a viral video and the wrath of a global community to act as a switch for an investigation to be initiated towards the culprits of heinous crimes committed against Kuki women, when most of the crimes were done in the presence of state police forces.

Article 29(1) provides that any section of the citizens residing in any part of India having a distinct language, script or culture of its own, shall have the right to conserve the same. Biren Singh, accusing the Kukis of using undecipherable language on social media and worthy of being wrung by their neck is a disrespect towards our mother tongue. Our usage of our own language in social media is our way of conserving our language. Who is he to dictate what language we must use and who gave him the authority? He should stop being a busybody and focus on where he should, like maintaining law and order in Imphal.

Mr Biren often talks about the integrity of Manipur, but on the other hand, he sows seeds of hate, discrimination, demeaning and prejudiced speech against one of the two tribes in Manipur regularly. Understanding, trust, fraternity and instilling security that their rights will be protected are the basic necessities to ensure its existence. Had the likes of the Haomee Federation been taken care of in time from spreading their lies and hatred against the Kuki, the Meitei community wouldn’t be as radicalised and as prejudiced as they are now. But when the CM himself shares the same objects and ideas, what has happened in Manipur was destined to happen. Today they may pass on the fault to everyone but themselves, but the sad reality however will always remain that a well-thought-out pogrom to alienate the Kukis from being Indian and from their land is being executed by creating a false narrative on our citizenship status and our character, to ensure their pogrom looks justified.

To shatter our citizenship credibility, they called us illegal immigrants, which suited their agenda with Myanmar turmoil and refugees in Mizoram. Back in 2018, at an event in India Today conclave, Mr Biren himself clarified there are no illegal immigrants in Manipur as detail checking and verification are done in the state. Communal leaders like him would never stop the system that works on humanitarian grounds for the victims of the Junta dictatorship. He and the Meiteis called us poppy planters and Narco-Terrorists. Once the hill development funds reach the pocket of these poor people, once you provide them with the education and health system of the valley district, you won’t need to beat your chest to announce that you are waging a War against drugs. You just have to stop feeding the valley with what is meant for the hills to wage the war against drugs. Mr Biren should not have shied away from learning the mature way of handling the poppy issues from Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh or Himachal Pradesh on how they dealt with their cannabis planters, but since his slogan is just an act he put forth for the world to hide his real agenda, it is unnecessary. Kuki militants are in peace talks with the Government of India, and there is no Kuki militant outfit that is recognized as a terrorist organization under UAPA, thus the term Narco-Terrorists is just another pick-up term to malign the Kukis.

Like always, despite the injustice and violations of the Fundamental and Constitutional rights of the Kukis, the State high court is still on vacation mode only for matters concerning delivering justice and upholding the rights of the Kukis, but now as winter arrives it goes from aestivation to hibernation. The state media continues to be the mouthpiece of hate mongers and ethnic cleansers. In short, they continue being puppets of N. Biren.

The very fact that not one tall leader from their community had spoken up for the atrocities done against us or corrected the lies spread against us signals their concurrence, as the anarchy in Manipur is their own creation to establish a Meitei country implicitly, targeting the Kukis was how they achieved it. The evidence for it is that no central authority/ institution is given the permission to perform their assigned duties and roles as long as it harms Meiteis’ interest or their people even if they are rapists or terrorists. Indianness and respect for Indian laws got driven away from their land along with the Kukis by them. We as proud Indians shall not be integrated with a community that threatens and undermines Indian sovereignty.

As prejudices against the Kuki by the Meitei community touch the zenith as an effective result from brainwashing and radicalisation of all age groups from sections who believe in Meitei Supremacy and revivalism of Meitei independent kingdom, and as the prejudices and hate for Kukis come down from the CM’s office to small children in the state, living together with our oppressor and a community of secessionist, is too un-Indian for us. Thus, Separate Administration is the only solution now.