An Enforced Silence On The Part Of PM Modi Cannot Solve Manipur Crisis
Modi’s Silence on Manipur has Destroyed the State’s Credibility If Modi hopes that he can wish away the Manipur crisis by staying silent, he is mistaken. By now, ethnic divides have become deeply entrenched and the security-centric approach of creating buffer zones between the Meitei and the Kuki is making the gulf permanent. Crying for a political solution, the people now feel completely abandoned by Modi, who exhorted them to vote for a ‘double-engine’ government in the state two years ago. His indifference towards Manipur, while he goes campaigning for elections in Karnataka, to the train accident site in Odisha or chairs a disaster management conference for cyclone Biprajoy in Gujarat, only reinforces the sentiment. The state has simply collapsed. More than 4,500 weapons have been ransacked – rather handed over to local militia and mobs – from state armouries. In Manipur, the violence is not between militants and security forces; it is between two communities, involving ordin...