The killing of T.
Thangthuam, IGP (Intelligence), Manipur by the
outlawed Revolutionary Peoples Front (RPF) on
New Year’s Eve and a train of unsavory
incidents that followed highlighted, once
again, the tenuous nature of inter-community
relations in the State. Opinions expressed by
supposedly informed and educated persons from
both sides of the divide further reveal just
how wide the chasm is between the valley and
the hills not only at the ground level, but
also at what I will call the intellectual
level. These widely diverging standpoints,
political aspirations that simply cannot
reconcile and mutual hatred and distrust of
each other since a long time have never been
negotiated in any meaningful way between the
contending parties, leading to the
‘pressure-cooker situation’ which is about to
explode now in our face. The mob violence
targeted at the Meitei community in
Churachandpur in the wake of Thangthuam’s
killing and the belligerent stand adopted by
tribal bodies is just a fraction of the steam,
accumulated over the years, escaping. All of
us play the game of competitive communalism
for so long that the destructive force that
came forth has turned itself into a whirlwind
and is now about to consume us all.
I am not surprised about many people in the
valley getting outraged over the communal
overtones heard from tribal organizations
after the killing. They obviously are
desperate to let the killing pass as just
another successful operation by an underground
outfit. They are sweetly unaware (or is it a
case of pretension, something we have mastered
over the years) of the extent and depth of
alienation and sense of deprivation, felt all
along by the tribals in the hills. Here, I
must say that the Imphal-based newspapers,
which would not let pass any tribal voice
critical of the Meitei organizations without
sugar-coating them, are responsible in a big
way for this sense of complacency within the
Meitei society.
Now that most of us realized just how far
removed our perceptions are from reality, I
believe it is time to take off the gloves and
face truth in its unalloyed form. It’s time we
get off our own make-believe world and see the
situation for what it is.
If I am to select a hill district in Manipur
where anti-valley sentiments are the most
intense, it will not be Senapati or Ukhrul,
but Churachandpur. It is significant that
while Naga-inhabited districts are generally
devoid of Meitei population, the link language
among them is still Manipuri. In Churachandpur,
which has a sizable Meitei population, a
majority of the tribal people does not know
Manipuri language and did not care to learn
it. There is hardly any social contact between
the tribal and Meitei communities too. In
terms of religion, culture and social
practices, the two are as different as chalk
and cheese. They live each day together in a
spirit of mutual distrust and suppressed
hatred. Ask any intelligible person in Lamka
what he or she believe is the biggest threat
to their survival as a tribe or nation, they
will not think twice before saying ‘Meiteis’.
Ask them where they would like to be
politically ten years down the line; majority
of them will not say ‘Manipur’.
For the people of Churachandpur, Thangthuam’s
killing is neither an isolated incident nor an
accidental one. It is being seen as only the
latest in a series of systematic campaign
carried out to intimidate and subjugate them.
It does not help that other police officers
from the district like R. Parte or T.
Tualkhanpau had previously died at the hands
of the militants. Thangthuam, it may be
mentioned, is the highest-ranking tribal
police officer in Manipur. He is the
highest-ranking police officer to have been
killed in the state since statehood. His
promotion to the rank of DGP is reportedly
long overdue. Thangthuam is an officer who
rose to the status he is by sheer hard work
(he had worked the jhums, do self-support
during college, worked as a school teacher and
college lecturer, later to join Police
service) and is a father-figure to many young
people. It is also not lost on the people that
his killing came despite the understanding
that Meitei militants, in general, do not
target state officials.
In the interior parts of the district,
landmines continue to explode and kill. It is
an accepted fact among the people affected by
the landmines that these bombs were planted by
Meitei militants. That the Meitei militants,
especially the UNLF, blamed the Indian Army
for these landmines does not cut much ice with
the people, because many of the villages where
the landmines exploded have never been under
Army control. Nobody say so openly in the
press simply because they are scared for their
lives. The fact that the government is still
pussyfooting on it, and that the Manipuri
civil society and the state media continued to
evade, or downplay the threat, did not help
salve the wounded psyche. There is a firm
belief that the landmines were a ploy to evict
the tribal population from their ancestral
lands. The Meitei militants, thus, are being
seen as a bigger evil than the Indian army.
The ambiguous stand adopted by many tribal
organizations on the demand for repeal of
AFSPA has to be seen in this context.
As for the militants themselves, how do I
begin? It was on January 19, 2004 that the RPF/PLA
militants mounted a double-attack on the BSF
(and local police who came as reinforcement)
at Centre Road in Churachandpur, which is the
main market place in the town. Two died and
one civilian was hurt. The RPF proclaimed the
incident as their ‘New Year Gift’ to the
people of Churachandpur. Earlier, on August 1,
2003, the RPF had also attacked a CRPF Patrol
at Zenhang Lamka-Zou Veng junction, killing a
jawan. Many civilians suffered injuries and
lots of properties were destroyed as the CRPF
men went berserk in the aftermath of the
attack. Meitei militants had also fired upon
the CRPF post at Lamka Community Hall twice
during 2004 at night time, on July 12 and 16,
leading to lots of civilian properties
destroyed in the vicinity, apart from the
feelings of terror wrought on the people. They
had also attacked another patrol at Lailamveng,
Lamka a little earlier on July 1, 2004.
These attacks were
mounted in densely populated areas, again and
again, in spite of numerous appeals from the
public to militants to refrain from doing the
same. A barrage of condemnations and appeals
followed each attack carried out at public
places. After the RPF’s infamous New Year Gift
attack, there was a huge public meeting at
Lamka Public ground where fervent appeals were
made to them not to repeat the acts. It did
not stop the three attacks during July.
So there is some history down there which is
etched so firmly in the consciousness of the
tribals that they will recall it again and
again, with bitterness, and between gnawed
teeth. No doubt, since the RPF selected New
Year’s Eve to be execution day for Thangthuam
this time round, no Zomi community, not only
in Churachandpur, but everywhere else, could
celebrate this New Year. Instead, they used
the occasion to make a collective pledge to
stand up to the threat facing them and chart
out the route of their own political destiny
(I personally had got mail and phone calls
from as far as London and the voices are
ear-piercing). That Ibobi Singh, the Chief
Minister, broke down yet again during the
funeral service (The CM also openly broke down
during Elizabeth Lungnila’s funeral and the
Thoubal bombings, but the culprits are still
loose) and that the state DGP, AK Parashar
termed the killing as ‘unfortunate’ leaves
them seething. They read the justification
given for the killing by the RPF and see in it
two words in bold letters: challenge, insult.
Add to all this the promise of 6th Schedule
that never came, demand for change of the name
from Churachandpur to Lamka which is never
fulfilled, the recent ‘transfer’ of a
transformer meant for Churachandpur to Thoubal,
the suspension of bus service from Lamka to
Imphal at every conceivable opportunity and
whatever else grudge they have in between, and
you are no longer surprised at the
‘over-reactions’ given to Thangthuam’s killing
and why the people of Churachandpur are so
angry, all the time. If you still have doubt
on what I am talking about, you may kindly
visit the Kanglaonline, where an online poll
is being conducted on the year’s worst
incident and read some of the comments. Lucky
we, that words can’t kill!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: “First they came for the
Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I
was not a Communist; Then, they came for the
Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I was not
a Jew. Then, they came for the Catholics, and
I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then, they came for me, and by that time there
was no one to speak up for me”.
- Rev. Martin Niemoller, a German Pastor
imprisoned by the Nazis during WWII.
*** The author can be reached at ngaihte11@yahoo.co.in
OR thangkhanlal@gmail.com |
