In a significant statement, Working Committee, Naga National Political Groups (WC, NNPGs) said India’s image as a tolerant, secular and vibrant democracy will never be the same again following the violence in Manipur.
WC media cell, alleged that the government of India has literally set its own tent in Manipur on fire that could spread. Further WC slammed the government of India for having failed the communities even as the “destruction of democratic ideals is visible.”
WC said thousand years of neighbourly coexistence between Nagas, Meiteis and Kukis has taken a “brutal beating” and that it was time that the affected communities themselves, through civil societies and sane community leaders, allowed reason and conscience to overcome violent and destructive philosophy at play.
WC also termed the Manipur turmoil as a failure of Centre’s policy that has weakened the very foundation of the Northeast whose core has also been shaken. It said the epicentre was Manipur and the tremor was felt in the US, European Union Parliament and around the world. WC described the carnage, destruction and death in Manipur as unprecedented in post-independent India.
It also maintained that the “body and soul of Mother India lay tattered, disrobed, defiled, and desecrated by her own children”. WC lamented that those meant to protect India’s democracy in Manipur have failed, “sold their souls to party politics and communal demons”. This has shamed India’s neighbourhood and the entire civilized world as democratic India was smeared with innocent blood on a daily basis, WC said.
WC stated that the Manipur government and Central government cannot claim innocence, as religious doctrinal pursuit was being enforced at the cost of secular spirit and ethos of founding fathers of the Indian constitution.
WC asserted that the ransacking and burning down of more than 200 churches by Meiteis was neither tolerant nor secular and demanded that the community explain the logic behind the burning down of Meitei churches in Imphal valley. WC asked whether the Christian Meiteis too were cultivating poppy plants and indulging in narco terrorism?
“If Kukis were narco terrorists, as Biren Singh’s narrative says, what were Meitei Christians and why their churches had to be torched? Meiteis must answer this pertinent question. Naga people will not stay silent against dangerous, intolerant religious fanaticism at work. It is not just about demanding ST status, UCC. It is perpetrating ethnic cleansing based on faith and religion. This is unacceptable,” the committee declared.
The committee alleged that the silent non-violent peace protest by tribal communities on May 3 against Meitei’s demand for ST status gave the ruling dispensation in Manipur abandon the fort and allow dominant Meitei community, aided and assisted by state forces, to snatch thousands of automatic and semi-automatic weapons and huge round of ammunitions from state armouries and weapon depots. This was a clear undeniable communal and religious facet to the crime and cruelty being perpetrated in Manipur, the committee said, adding it was premeditated, it said.
According to the NNPGs, Meitei women had achieved notoriety in “going completely naked, displaying their nudity to Indian Army as mark of protest against local and militancy issues too often”. WC said if their culture and tradition allowed women and daughters to go naked, they this should not be forced on other communities.
“To go naked on the street in single or group, protest or no protest is not acceptable to all communities. It is against the law of human decency. No man in his right mind, be it civil or military, would have the courage to lift a head to face naked women in the street. A civilized behaviour is a correct response,” WC reiterated.
WC said found inhuman and intolerable that Meitei men would forcefully parade naked women and girls of other communities and sexually assault them. It demanded to know if their wives, sisters or daughters were treated in the same manner, would the Meiteis stay quiet?
WC said the May 4 incident will be marked as the death of Meitei conscience and that the Meiteis had created an eternal stigma of shame upon themselves. Citing history to show that sexual violence against women was a part of state-sponsored ethno-religious terrorism, WC said that chief minister Biren Singh, by still remaining in power after nearly three months of absolute anarchy and bloodbath, has set an ignominious record
The statement maintained that the political leadership of India had committed a self-goal, stating that its future ramification was frightening and unimaginable in the region. It mentioned that the socio-economic, religious and cultural, political and historical landscape of the Northeast was too fragile historically.
The committee said the Central leadership took a wait and watch approach, hoping to score electoral points by playing communal card, rather than talking and walking the path of unity in diversity. It lamented that innocent blood was already flowing in the streets of Imphal and in the neighbourhood as the killing spree continued unabated till today.
GoI has set fire to its own tent in Manipur: WC
