Manipur: How two incidents put security forces’ role under scanner again

Are the security forces in Manipur going overboard? The question has been raised as two back-to-back controversies involving the armed forces in the trouble-torn state put their role under the scanner.

The contentious action of the Mahar Regiment and the Border Security Force (BSF) of forcing a Manipur State Transport bus to obscure the name of the state written on it before travelling through Kuki areas has clouded New Delhi’s position on the state’s territorial integrity.

Rising tempers

Though governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla has ordered a probe into the incident as a damage-control measure, the move has failed to quell rising tempers in the valley. People want to know whether the men in uniforms were “executing orders” from higher-ups or acted unilaterally.

The bus of Manipur State Transport was hired by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) for the media contingent covering the inaugural function of the Shirui Lily Festival in Ukhrul on May 20.

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It was stopped at Gwaltabi in Imphal East district by the security personnel as they felt it would be inappropriate for the MST bust to proceed further with the state’s name written on it.

Gwaltabi falls within a buffer zone between the Meitei-majority Imphal Valley and the Kuki-Zo dominated hills.

Home Ministry backtracks on promise

The home ministry had earlier backtracked from fulfilling its promise of resuming intra-state bus services from the first week of March this year following resistance from Kuki-Zo protesters.

The tribal community is against resumption of services in their areas until their demand for a separate administration is fulfilled.

Also Read: Manipur's Kuki groups decide not to hold talks with Centre

Chiefs of Kuki villages that fall on the Imphal-Ukhrul route assured the Tangkhul Naga Long, the apex body of the Tangkhul community, that people from the Imphal valley would be allowed to travel to Ukhrul through Kuki areas without any hindrance to take part in the festival.

The Naga-majority Ukhrul district is the venue of the festival that will conclude on Saturday (May 24).

Bus-signage row

Several participants from Imphal have taken part in the festival without any trouble. But the bus-signage controversy poured cold water on any hopes about the festival providing a breakthrough in defusing the ongoing ethnic conflict between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zo communities.

It aggravated the fragile situation in the trouble-torn state. A 48-hour complete shutdown was observed in the valley districts to protest the security force’s action.

Also Read: Manipur: 10 militants killed in ongoing Assam Rifles operation

"The decision to have Manipur removed from a state bus itself is anti-Manipur, absolutely challenges the idea of Manipur and its historical and cultural identity," said Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) convenor Khuraijam Athouba.

Apologies, resignations demanded

The committee has demanded apologies from the governor and resignations from the state’s security Advisor Kuldiep Singh, Director General of Police Rajiv Singh, and Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Singh.

"The people of Manipur demand to know under whose authority the decision was taken," Athouba said.

The action of the security personnel undermined constitutional values, encouraged communal division, and violated citizens' fundamental rights, alleged the Indigenous People Forum, Manipur (IPFM).

‘Direct affront to Manipur’s identity’

Terming the incident a “direct affront to the constitutional and political identity” of Manipur, the forum said it was “a serious insult to the existence of Manipur as a full-fledged state under the Indian Union and undermines the federal values enshrined in the Constitution”.

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“If there were any legitimate security concerns, the appropriate course of action should have come from the state administration - currently functioning under the Governor during President’s Rule. The fact that the Governor's administration failed to anticipate or address such concerns, and instead allowed central security forces to take such unilateral and provocative actions, is a matter of deep embarrassment and administrative failure,” it alleged.

Avoidable misunderstanding: BJP

The BJP’s Northeast in-charge Sambit Patra sought to downplay the incident terming it “unfortunate.” He said the incident happened due to “avoidable misunderstanding” and reiterated his party’s stand that the territorial integrity of Manipur is “non-negotiable.”

The inquiry ordered by the governor and the clarification of Patra indicate the inconveniences the act has caused to the ruling dispensation.

Another controversy

Another recent action of the armed forces in the state that triggered controversy was the killing of 10 members of the People’s Defence Organisation (PDO), also known as Pa Ka Pah, of Myanmar on the intervening night of May 14-15.

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The Assam Rifles killed ten “armed cadres” in an encounter near the India-Myanmar border in Manipur’s Chandel district, the army had claimed after the incident, without specifying the group to which the slain cadres belonged.

Serious allegation

Disputing the claim, Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow government formed by the pro-democracy lawmakers of the deposed regime, raised a serious allegation that those killed were PDO members.

It further alleged that they were not killed in an encounter but were “captured, tortured, and summarily executed by personnel from Assam Rifles Battalion-1”.

Also Read: Two years of Manipur unrest: Kukis, Meiteis hold separate protests in Delhi

NUG’s demand

The NUG in a statement called upon the India to take five steps, including adequate compensation to the families of the victims.

It wanted the govt to “publicly clarify the full facts surrounding the incident; ensure accountability by conducting a transparent and thorough investigation, and by taking appropriate action against those responsible, especially in view of the fact that the deceased were not insurgents operating against the Government of India.”

‘Assam Rifles acted in self-defence’

A defence PRO, however, said the Assam Rifles patrol party acted in self-defence.

“A patrol of Assam Rifles, out to sanitise the area, where fence (border fencing) construction is underway along the IMB (India-Myanmar border), came under intense automatic fire from armed cadres. Clearly, the likely intent of the cadres was to cause severe harm to construction workers or troops of Assam Rifles to deter the fencing work,” the PRO said in a statement.

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“The Indian Security Forces, while operating on their own side of the IMB, responded in the same way with professionalism and tactical precision, neutralising 10 cadres and recovering a huge cache of automatic weapons and other war-like stores. No faction/entity laid claim to the mortal remains of the cadres. The deceased cadres, who were found to be dressed in combat fatigues, could later be identified as cadres of Pa Ka Pha (PKP),” the statement read.

Complete collapse of protocols

Amidst the blame game, what stood out is the complete collapse of the protocols that existed on the ground between the security forces and the PDO to avert such incidents.

The coordination with the NUG is imperative as any hostility with the PDO will have bearing on New Delhi’s recent attempts to revive the decades-old Kaladan multi-modal project to provide sea-access to India’s northeast though Myanmar’s Rakhine state by-passing Bangladesh.

‘Extremely counter-productive’

“The statement of the NUG is extremely concerning if the killing took place despite sharing prior intimation about the presence of the PDO members with the Assam Rifles,” said Suhas Chakma, Director of the Delhi-based Rights & Risks Analysis Group.

“These measures can be extremely counter-productive for the Government of India at a time Myanmar is caught up in a civil war and the borders on the Myanmar side are controlled by the insurgent groups. India ought to remember the implications of the killing of the leaders of the National Unity Party of Arakan (NUPA) in the Andaman Islands in February 1998 after the Burmese junta double agent infiltrated the Indian military establishment,” he added.

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The Arakan Army (AA) remains wary of India even today though it is dependent on India because of geographical proximity while India needs the AA to make the Kaladan project operational to link Mizoram to Kolkata via Myanmar’s Sittwe port.

“New Delhi needs to couch its policy towards the Burmese insurgent groups in a realistic manner considering the effective collapse of the junta. The Myanmarese junta will not and is not in a position to respond to India's interests and that ought to be borne in mind. India needs to firm up its policy and this message needs to go down to the operational level to ensure that India's own interests are not harmed," Chakma said.