Editorial: Modi’s Manipur outreach—too little, too late

Modi's Manipur trip was more a media spectacle than a substantive outreach for people of the north eastern State who endured a lot of suffering and bloodshed

‘Too little, too late’ is how Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-publicised visit to Manipur — his first since the ethnic violence broke out two years ago — can be summed up. The delayed trip, during which he launched a few development projects, was more a media spectacle than a substantive outreach for people of the north eastern State who endured a lot of suffering and bloodshed. In his public addresses, he conspicuously avoided any mention of the State’s ongoing ethnic tensions, the humanitarian challenges faced by internally displaced persons (IDPs), or the broader political impasse that continues to affect governance in the region. The PM did meet carefully selected groups of displaced persons, who were brought to the venue, but did not visit the actual refugee camps. He made passing reference to problems related to infrastructure and connectivity — but held out no hope, made no promise, of helping the displaced to return home or find rehabilitation. Modi referred to disruption in education and boasted of online classes — but made no mention of the schools that have been turned into relief camps for the displaced. The visit, though belated, provided an occasion for the PM to unveil a concrete and time-bound road map to resettle the internally displaced persons and find a lasting political solution. But no attempt was made to use the occasion to generate hope of a solution to the current crisis. Also, no effort was made to bring the two warring ethnic groups — Kukis and Meities — together and to announce the start of a dialogue.

The people of Manipur suffered the consequences of ethnic strife for over two years, which left a trail of death and destruction. Much of the misery of displacement could have been avoided if the Prime Minister had intervened earlier. The trouble-torn State had a ‘double engine sarkar’, but both the Centre and State governments failed miserably to restore order. BJP Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who came under severe criticism for his inept handling of the situation, finally resigned in February this year, and since then, the State has been under President’s rule. The relative calm in recent months is largely attributed to the fact that many militants have returned some of the looted firearms to law enforcement agencies in response to appeals from the authorities. The Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and United People’s Front (UPF) have signed a Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with the government on re-negotiated terms and conditions under which they agreed on maintaining the territorial integrity of Manipur. The NDA government must now walk the talk on upholding a rules-based constitutional order where rioters who committed egregious violence are nabbed and their cases put on the fast track, irrespective of their political connections. Any durable peace in Manipur will require non-partisan, sustained and credible political commitment to provide a healing touch to the wounds.

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