The Manipur incident speaks volumes about the fate of minority women
"The police were there with the mob which was attacking our village. The police picked us up from near home, and took us a little away from the village and left us on the road with the mob. We were given to them by police," one of the gang rape victims in India's northeastern Manipur state recounted the hideous incident that took place on May 4 this year, during the recent escalation of violence between two ethnic groups. Both the victims, in their 20s and 40s, were from the Kuki-Zomi community, most of whom practice Protestant Christianity. The perpetrating mob, on the other hand, belonged to the Meitei community – constituting about 53 percent of Manipur's population of 3.5 million – about 83 percent of whom follow Hinduism. During the violence, more than 150 people were killed, 60,000 internally displaced, 115 villages torched and razed to the ground, 250 churches destroyed, and more than 4,573 weapons looted from the police armoury, according to various reports.
While the incident took place in May this year, it only came to light last week when a graphic video of the women being paraded naked and then taken into a field where they were gang raped brutally went viral. Interestingly, it took the police 62 days to take any action against the perpetrators of the gang rape, though an FIR was lodged by the husband of one of the victims on May 18.
The way the state government has handled the delicate situation in Manipur comes off as an attempt to implement the policy of polarisation that ends with minority suppression. BJP's ultra right-wing policy has influenced various discussions on Manipur recently, more prominently on March 31 this year, when the Chief Minister Biren Singh said that he will "flush out" illegal settlers in Manipur through the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC), which had previously created a citizenship crisis and escalated tension in another state, Assam. Moreover, the measure taken in February this year by the state government to drive out tribal villagers from the reserved forests added fuel to tensions. To put this in context: while the Meitei community mostly live in the Imphal valley, the various ethnic tribes, including the Nagas and Kukis (making up about 40 percent of the population), inhabit the hills surrounding the valley.
When a state High Court directed the state government to refer the demand of the Meitei community – which already enjoys the benefits of being the majority and belonging to the "right" ethnicity (meaning they are not considered illegal settlers) – for a Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry by May 29, tensions escalated. Such a classification would mean more access for the Meitei community to education and government jobs, in addition to the benefits they are already enjoying now.
It would be worth mentioning here the disparity between the representation and development of the hills and the valley. While the hill areas account for more than 20,089 sq-km and the valley 2,238 sq-km, the hills are represented by only 20 representatives in the Manipur legislative assembly, while 40 come from the valley. Likewise, there is a disparity between the development budget of the hills and the valley. Between 2016 and 2021, of the Rs 22,000 crore stipulated in the plans, only less than Rs 500 crore was spent on tribal area development. While the BJP-led state government is right in pointing out that many of the tribes grow poppy, they do not tell the other side of the story – that underrepresented, underserved, undernourished, and neglected by the authorities, the tribes are forced into growing poppy to meet their livelihood necessities. Had the government created robust and holistic economic opportunities for them, perhaps they would not have the need for poppy cultivation.
The current policy of polarisation will not only rip the nation and its values of democracy, pluralism and secularism into shreds, but its impact will be felt across the region, including Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, China and the rest.
The past has been unfair to Manipur and it is this deep cleavage of distrust that the BJP has utilised to divide the communities. The ruling party and its cronies have, provocatively, vilified the minorities, with the Chief Minister calling a Kuki human rights activist, "Myanmarese". The Meitei community, including its chief, Meitei Leepun, has also openly called the Kukis "not indigenous to Manipur," "not part of the family," "illegal," and "outsiders," and threatened to wipe them out from disputed areas. Such narratives provide ammunition to the criminal intentions of the extremist elements.
With state sponsorship and patronisation of violent Meitei intentions (after all, the two Kuki women were left with the mob by the police themselves), bloodshed was inevitable. It came as no surprise that an FIR was registered on July 8 at the Imphal police station against members of a fact-finding team that visited Manipur, when they said that the violence in the state was "state sponsored." Two of the members of the mission are associated with Communist Party of India's women's wing, National Federation of Indian Women, and the third is a Delhi-based lawyer.
In the shocking aftermath of the video leak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his silence and said that "Action will be taken according to the law". But one cannot help but wonder, what guarantee is there that these rapists will not be freed, like the rapists of Bilkis Bano – the Gujarat riot rape victim, whose rapists were given premature release from jail under the Gujarat state government's remission policy, on India's Independence Day last year – and received with garlands and sweets by their friends?
A few hours before the release of Bilkis Bano's rapists, Prime Minister Modi, speaking from the ramparts of Delhi's Red Fort, had asked the nation, "Can we not pledge to get rid of everything in our behaviour, culture and everyday life that humiliates and demeans women?" These words mean very little if they are contradicted by attitude towards minorities, particularly its women.
The current policy of polarisation will not only rip the nation and its values of democracy, pluralism and secularism into shreds, but its impact will be felt across the region, including Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, China and the rest. India shares porous borders with most of these countries, and internal unrest in India, especially in the bordering regions, and exclusionist policies and measures, will inevitably impact its neighbours.
It is high time policymakers acknowledge that their current policy and modus operandi are working to weaken India in general. The BJP must revisit its agenda and look to unlocking the full potential of the nation, which can only happen through tolerance, respect and inclusion of the minorities.
Tasneem Tayeb is a columnist for The Daily Star. Her Twitter handle is @tasneem_tayeb