Highly regarded human rights activists from Manipur and director of Human Rights Alert Babloo Loitongbam has said that the Union home minister’s two-hour speech in the Lok Sabha last week, where Amit Shah explained the crisis in Manipur by citing the influx of Kuki refugees from Burma, has made the situation in Manipur “worse”. Loitongbam said this explanation is one-sided and at best a “half-truth”. After the home minister spoke on August 9, his speech has been vehemently refuted by all ten Kuki MLAs, the Kuki Inpi and the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum.

In an interview to The Wire, Loitongbam also said that it was “irresponsible” not to remove N. Biren Singh. With the entire Kuki population having lost faith in the chief minister, and with 15 out of the BJP’s 32 MLAs taking the same position, the “stubborn” insistence on retaining Biren Singh is prolonging if not exacerbating the problem. A new BJP chief minister, who no doubt will be Meitei, would provide an opportunity to start some sort of peace process and it would also appease the Kuki community, who are 16% of the population.

Loitongbam is a Meitei who has faced violent threats from Meitei organisations like Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun because of the stand he’s taken on the crisis in Manipur.

Loitongbam makes clear that the situation could have been nipped in the bud as early as May 3 or 4 if the chief minister had acted. He says it was negligence on the part of Biren Singh not to do so. When asked if this negligence was followed or succeeded by a measure of complicity in wanting the crisis to continue, Loitongbam said that it would be a problem back home if he were to agree.

Amongst the issues that are discussed in the interview is the Meitei demand to replace the Assam Rifles, the Kuki demand to restrain and stop Manipur police entering the hill areas, the army request for restraint on the Meira Paibis who block roads and hold up army convoys, the Meitei perception of a land imbalance and their demand for Scheduled Tribe status as well as the Kuki demand for separate administration, which they say means a separate state or union territory. There’s also a substantial discussion of the prime minister’s handling of the crisis and what his silence – now limited comments – suggest of his attitude to the state.

Loitongbam says that there is a need for civil society organisations and individuals to come together, facilitated by the government, and throw up out of the box ideas and start discussing them. He says although it’s not apparent to people outside Manipur, this process has started.

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