The Hate Propagandist: N. Biren Singh and the Rise of Fascism in Manipur

Manipur or Kangleipak as the people call it, was once a calm and splendorous place where both people of the hills and valley co-existed peacefully with utmost respect for each other.  “Chingna koina pansaba, haona koina pan ngakpa” meaning “the land which is surrounded by hills and guarded by the hillmen” was the theme of coexistence and the same was testified by the sheltering of valley dwellers during the Seven Years of Devastation, Chassad chief sending 200 of his men to stand guard against merger of Manipur in 1949 and other various instances that history has in its memoirs.          

Unfortunately, the bond of brotherhood and the cordial relationship between Hills and Valley in the past has been deluded by contemporary Meetei centric leaders and thus began to dwindle gradually. The Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov had said that, “You can get quite far in a democracy if you can convince a majority that they are victims of a minority, and that only you can protect them.” which is perfectly employed by the communal Meetei leaders to rally the people around them. The titular king of Manipur Leisemba Sanajaoba whom the Kuki had shown utmost respect in tune with the historical setting of the past friendship between the Manipuri Kings and Kuki Chiefs had been radical of the meetei hegemony and is spearheading the meetei militias such as the Arambai Tengol and Meetei Leepun clandestinely in his capacity as the titular king as well as the people’s representative to the parliament.                   

 In the meanwhile, with N. Biren Singh as the Chief Minister of Manipur, a paradigm shift in the socio-political scenario emerged with division of people along ethnic lines and perceived indigeneity of various communities that have been living together for centuries. His selective discrimination is not limited to the hills and valley alone but also among the hill tribes by favoring one upon another. The facets of Neo-Fascism can be seen with N. Biren Singh seated at the helm of power where Kuki people are labelled as illegal immigrants, refugees, narco-terrorists and whatnot. The first political strategy of his fascist ideology can be felt through his approach towards the enactment of Reserved Forest laws in hilly Kuki-Zo areas. By-passing all the established norms and rules, deluded by the narratives of too much congestion in the valley and exploiting the flaws of land ownership in the hills, he flexes his authoritarian muscles upon the helpless village dwellers by serving eviction notice and declaring them as illegal settlers in their own ancestral land.

The anti-Kuki rhetoric and indigenisation theories had flooded the social media and the local print media to radicalize the youths and various organisations such as the Haomee Federation, Kanglei Kanba Lup, World Meetei Council etc. had mushroomed to propagate hatred against the Kuki community and intimidate them by imposing the “refugee” tag. In fact, it was the failure of the Manipur government as well as the Indian government to rehabilitate and resettle those displaced people due to the atrocities of NSCN(IM) after the organization gained ground in the North Eastern India, in which thousands of families and hundreds of villages were uprooted and scattered. It will be cruel and unfair to refer such displaced people as illegal immigrants and refugees. However, it is very unfortunate that a person with a stature of occupying the post of Chief Minister of a state had used derogatory remarks such as refugees, junglee etc to a particular community on a Facebook comment is uncalled for. Also, such remarks from the man holding the most powerful position in the state had emboldened the already radicalized Meetei youths to intensify their anti-kuki rhetoric and propagandas.

The labelling of Kuki as narco-terrorist community as a whole is just another example of fascist ideology put into practicality by Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and his cohorts. Not a single country and even the most advanced and well regulated countries are not fully capable of dealing with the menace of drugs and as such, it cannot be attributed to a particular community. In fact, the drug trafficking network is managed by big players from the valleys and the cultivators are mere pawns in the game.  One of the most decorated ex-cop, Th. Brinda had spilled out that the Chief Minister was the ‘Godfather’ of all this illicit business in the state which probably led to her quitting her job as a police officer. As such, the problem of drug trafficking is not a recent phenomenon. It is neither a problem of a community alone nor an endemic but rather, it’s a worldwide problem and blaming one particular community is a manifestation of the rise of fascism. There is a saying that  “If the wise fails to guide a society, the stupid will surely do it.” and seemingly, the majority Meetei community is under the guidance of radical organizations like the Arambai Tengol and the Meetei Leepun who had knowingly or unknowingly destroyed the unity and integrity of the state, thereby necessitating the demand for a Separate Administrative set up for the Kuki-Zo community.

The controversy looming over the naming of the Anglo-Kuki War had caused deep pain and hurt the emotions of the Kuki-Zo people as the struggle and sacrifices of their forefathers had been ignored, neglected and forgotten. When a short battle at Khongjom can be recorded as ‘Khongjom War’, why a full scale war that engulfed the whole of North Eastern India for three whole years cannot be called a War ? Even India’s First War of Independence was termed as ‘Revolt of 1857’ by British writers and it is obvious that the Kukis’ fight against the British will be termed ‘Rebellion’  by the British writers. It’s a moral obligation, duty and responsibility of a state to honor and acknowledge the sacrifices made by its people. However, the sacrifice of the Kuki people had been rewarded with indignity, humiliation and even dishonored by questioning the very existence of the War since the Kukis are not in a position to claim the glory of their past.   

The demand for the status of a Schedule Tribe itself is an absurd state of affairs where one wants to become a backward community or a undeveloped tribe. In the context of Manipur, it is apt to say that the demand for ST status by majority Meetei community is more of coveting the opportunities embedded with it and the land procurement policies in the hills which barred the non tribals from buying the lands. The present ethnic violence in Manipur too has got its spark from the Meetei ST demand itself with the Manipur High Court direction to recommend the demand of Meeteis to the Union Government followed by protest rally in the hills. But in reality, the Meeteis, who are the majority in the state have the best of opportunities in terms of employment where every department of the state government is practically filled with them down from bottom to the top; medical and educational institutions congestedly concentrated at Meeteis areas; dissappropriate representation in the state assembly; inappropriate distribution of development funds between the valley and hills and the reservation quotas of SC, OBCs and that of General category wholly occupied by the majority Meetei. Above all these opportunities, the demand for ST status is nothing but a greed to devour every opportunities in the state.

The covetous nature of Meetei-centric speeches often mention that the top posts in government offices held by tribals, specifically the Kuki-Zo community, of being a free gift of tribal reservations quotas while ignorant of the fact that it was their sheer hardwork and years of toil that put them in those positions. This grudge of jealousy is clearly reflected in the nature of mayhem perpetuated from the 3rd of May this year against the Kuki-Zo community by specifically targeting high ranking officers in Imphal valley physically, politically and economically at the first instance. Nevertheless, with the living God on our side, the Kuki-Zo people had and will always shine brighter after every oppression and persecution like a fine gold shining brighter and better when heated in fire, and this particular event of Meetei pogrom to wipe out the whole of Kuki-Zo population in Manipur will be a call to rise, shine and meliorate in the days to come.