Has Biren’s Bonhomie with the Nagas of Manipur Coming to an End?

The United Naga Council (UNC), the apex social organisation of the Nagas of Manipur, in its presidential council meeting held on 9 August 2024 at Maram, Senapati district, resolved to continue its demand to roll-back the seven new districts created in December 2016 by the then Congress government.

It may be noted that the UNC had launched a series of agitation including a four month long economic blockade along the two National Highways (Imphal-Dimapur road and Imphal-Jiri road) in protest against the bifurcation of the then seven existing districts out of nine to create seven new districts. The newly created districts include Jiribam (from Imphal East), Kakching (from Thoubal), Kangpokpi (from Senapati), Kamjong (from Uhrul) Noney (from Tamenglong), Pherzawl (from Churachandpur), and Tengnoupal (from Chandel). Imphal West and Bishnupur were the only two districts which were not bifurcated. The main argument of the UNC was that the Nagas were not consulted while creating these new districts.

However, after the BJP led government came to power in 2017 with Mr. N. Biren Singh as the Chief Minister, the UNC lifted its four-month long agitation though the reason behind such a u-turn was never shared to the public.

In the meantime, Mr. Biren began frequenting the hill districts either to inaugurate newly completed projects or announce new projects worth millions. During his first stint as the Chief Minister (2017-2022), Mr. Biren’s government had become much friendly to the Nagas while distancing itself from the Kukis. Though he had also often visited the Kuki-dominated districts such as Kangpokpi and Churachandpur, much of his government’s attention was focus on the Naga-dominated districts particularly Ukhrul, Senapati and Tamenglong. Even Ukhrul was proposed as the second capital of Manipur!

Towards the end of his first tenure, particularly since 2021, systematic attacks on the Kukis have started, and gained more momentum after he took oath as the Chief Minister for the second term on 15 March 2022. These include issuing show-cause notices to thousands of landowners in Imphal including churches, village chiefs, and random arrest of Kuki youths for social media comments. Whereas landowners of Imphal were declared as illegal occupants or encroachers, village lands in the hills were declared as reserved forest, protected forest, and proposed reserved forest. Notably, three Churches attended mostly by the Kuki community in Tribal Colony, Imphal, were also destroyed in the wee hours of 11 April 2023 while another church in the same colony spared. Interestingly, this particular church is attended mostly by the Tangkhuls (Naga).

Initially, when the state government issued show cause notices or eviction orders to the Churches in Imphal, the All Manipur Christian Organisation (AMCO) and All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM) along with UNC and Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) had collectively fought together to protect them. But slowly the Nagas chose to save their own Churches leaving those of the Kukis at the mercy of the “communal” state government.

Moreover, various hills such as Koubru, Thangjing (Thangting), Nongmaiching hill range, etc., which are located within the village jurisdictions of the Kuki chiefs were declared as heritage sites on the ground that they are culturally significant to the Meiteis. In all these cases, about 90% of the land which are under the surreptitious project of the state government belongs to the Kukis whereas those of the Nagas were largely excluded except in few occasions where the latter had lands in the Kuki-majority areas.

During this period, government officers who were sent for spot visit in Imphal often told the landowners, in case it happens to be that of a Naga, that they need not worry since their intention is only to identify those lands belonging to the Kukis. There was also a household survey conducted in 2022 particularly in Lamphel and National Game Village areas in Imphal West district in which the gates/doors of the Kukis were marked with ink/colour!

There was also a proposal to construct Maharaja Chandrakirti Park at the historic Chivu site in Churachandpur district, and the statue of a Meitei King was erected in the Indo-Myanmar border town of Moreh. Regrettably, a village named K.Songjang in Churachandpur district was also bulldozed on 21 February 2023 on the ground that it was a newly established village within the so-called Churachandpur-Khoupum Protected Forest.

In the meantime, the Schedule Tribe Demand Committee Manipur (STDCM) which has been spearheading the demand for inclusion of the Meitei/Meetei as Scheduled Tribe has been getting a favourable order from the Hon’ble High Court of Manipur on 27 March 2023. This demand of a section of the Meiteis was fiercely opposed by the tribals under the aegis of ATSUM. In protest against the directive of the Hon’ble Court, a massive solidarity rally was organised in all the hill districts on 3 May 2023. And it was on this day that the radicalised sections of the Meiteis with the open support of the state government including its Chief Minister Mr. Biren and the titular King and lone Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Leishemba Sanajaoba had begun its plan to ethnically cleanse the Kukis from the Meitei-dominated Imphal valley and its surrounding areas.

All these steps taken up by the Government of Manipur with Mr. Biren as the Chief Minister have been viewed as anti-Kuki. In fact, all the state machinery including the Hon’ble High Court had been exploited to annihilate the tribals particularly the Kukis and served the interest of the majority Meitei community. It is from this background that the ongoing state-sponsored ethnic pogrom against the Kukis needs to be seen.

Though the attack on the Kukis started on the day ATSUM had organised a mass rally, the Nagas of Manipur tactlessly chose the path of neutrality giving free hand to the majority Meiteis and the state in their attempt to annihilate the Kukis. In the last 15 months, all employment as well as educational opportunity, not to forget other amenities such as medical, trade, communication, etc. available in Imphal have been usurped by the Meiteis along with the Nagas and other smaller communities. Before, all the communities including the Kukis usually share these opportunities but all the facilities meant for the tribals are now taken by the Non-Kuki tribes.

It may also be noted that the several incidents involving atrocities meted out to the Nagas including the brutal murder of Ms. Lucy Maring, physical assaults/molestation of its women as in the case of the four Tangkhul women who were on their way to the Airport and the raid in a restaurant in Tangkhul Avenue by the Meiteis have been negotiated as per “Naga customary laws” and are forgiven. But any silly mistakes committed in the Kuki-dominated districts are often taken as attack on the whole Naga community. The best example is how the burning of a Truck belonging to the Meiteis in Kangpokpi district was responded with an economic embargo on all the Kuki-Zo communities for weeks!

Now that the UNC came out with an ultimatum to the state government to roll-back the new districts along with other demands, one wonders whether the bonhomie between Mr. Biren and the Nagas of Manipur have come to an end. Or, is it a ploy to take advantage of the prevailing situation for political gain? As fellow tribals and Christians, it is expected of the Nagas to take a decision which will be in the collective interest of the whole minority tribals. Else, a trivial mistake can only serve the interest of the dominant community and the communal state government headed by the narcissist leader Mr. Biren and his cohorts whose ultimate motive is the annihilation of the minority tribals. Now, they came for the Kuki-Zo, and it is everybody’s guess who will be their next target.