The Devil Lies in the Details: Unwanted Directions from the Meitei Secretary to Meitei Chief Minister

The recent directive from the Chief Minister’s Office has once again proven that the Meitei government will stoop even to the nadir level to publicly display its discriminatory attitude towards the Kukis. Vide UO No. 1/25/2024-CM dated 16th September 2024, the Secretary to the Chief Minister, Meitei N Geoffrey had issued a directive that “Reports have been received that over 900 Kuki militants, newly trained in use of drone-based bombs, projectiles, missiles and jungle warfare have entered Manipur from Myanmar. They are reportedly grouped in units of 30 members each and currently scatted (sic) in the periphery, and expected to launch multiple coordinated attacks on Meitei villages around 28 September, 2024. Police Department is requested to take all necessary measures in this regard.”

Very surprisingly, even the CM, through his chamcha Meitei N Geoffrey, dared not even issue an official directive and had to resort to issuance of UO (Unofficial Note) for something which is supposed to be very important information and instruction. This shows that even the CM Secretariat does not take its instructions seriously and had tried to play safe - if its instructions are followed blindly by the Police and Security Forces its instructions will be deemed successful; if the instructions are under criticism, it plans to rebut stating that it was only an Unofficial Note.

The UO cited “Reports”. Whose report? It is most likely that the so-called report could be the reports submitted to the Meitei Chief Minister by the Meitei militants or the Arambai Tenggol. Many Kukis have alleged that the Meitei CM directly talks to the Meitei militants and the Arambai Tenggol and seeks their guidance on how to terrorise the Kukis. If the so-called “reports” were the reports of the Indian intelligence community, then the DGP of Manipur Police would have already been aware of the issue and would have already briefed the Meitei Chief Minister. It is in this context, one Kuki MLA tweeted “DGP should be briefing CM if such intelligence inputs exist. Now Secretary to CM is briefing DGP.”

This issued Unofficial Note is a very dangerous precedent as it means that any XYZ civil servant close to the Meitei Chief Minister can direct the Police and the Chief Secretary to take action by citing any “report”.