The State Withers Away...

There is little semblance of governmentalauthority in Manipur, and, on April 23, Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singhconfirmed in public what had, in the past, largely remained a matter of privatediscussion. At a public meeting in Thoubal district, Singh confessed, 

"All development projectshave been stalled for interference by militant outfits (sic). Theconstruction of a flyover in Imphal (the state capital) is delayed because themilitant outfits are demanding a certain percentage of the project fund. Theconstruction of the Assembly complex has also been similarly stalled." 

The Chief Minister statedfurther: 

"Militants are extortingmoney from each and every one, including barbers, small-time traders andlow-ranking government employees. This has become unbearable for the people.Militant groups have sprung up as cooperative societies in Manipur."

Ibobi Singh’s statement,apart from reflecting the state’s impotence, is only a part of the narrativeon militancy in the state, which accounts for just 0.23 per cent of thecountry's population, and 0.68 per cent of its total geographical area. Violenceby 15 active outfits, with a total cadre strength of about 10,000, ensured that,in 2005, Manipur remained the most violent state in India’s Northeast, and thesecond most violent in the country, behind Jammu & Kashmir. 

According to the Annual Report2005-06 of the Ministry of Home Affairs, 410 fatalities were recorded in 2005 inmilitancy related activities in Manipur, a huge leap over the correspondingfigure of 258 in 2004. While a number of other states in the Northeast have orare been reclaimed from protracted insurgencies, Manipur’s rendezvous withmilitancy appears to be an unending affair. According to Institute forConflict Management data, sustained terrorist violence in 2006 had alreadyclaimed 118 lives in the state by April 30. Although terrorists constituted alittle over 50 per cent of the total fatalities, figures for civilians (38) andsecurity force personnel (19) remained high. Unabated extortion and its impacton ordinary lives, as well as those of people at the helm of affairs issymptomatic of the complete administrative breakdown in the state.

Militant excesses and extortionaffects everyone, from humble school teacher to the Chief Minister of the state.A sampling of recent incidents reflects the pervasive reality of terror:

On April 1, 2006, fourstaff members of a private recording studio belonging to the Hmar community areabducted by Kuki National Front (KNF) cadres belonging to its Zougam factionfrom Tuibong for their refusal to pay extortion amount of Rupees 200,000.

On March 23, 2006, aschool head master, Thokchom MR alias Ibungochouba Meetei, who had been servedan extortion notice amounting to Rupees 3000, is dragged away from his residenceand subsequently shot dead by unidentified militants at Tera Sayang KuraouMakhong under Lamphel police station in the Imphal West district.

In December 2005, ArmyChief J.J. Singh accusedChief Minister Ibobi Singh, of contributing a sum of Rs.1.5 crore to twomilitant organisations, Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) and People’s LiberationArmy (PLA), operating in the state.

The breakdownof administration in Manipur has long been noted with a number of groupsundermining the very possibility of governance. The militant KYKL, with anavowed agenda ridding the state of endemic corruption in the education sector,decreed, on April 24, 2006, that it would henceforth no longer ‘kneecap’ the‘corrupt officials’ in the education department, but would summarily inflictcapital punishment. Langamba Mangang, the group’s ‘publicity and researchsecretary’, warned, "Corruption in the education department will not betolerated anymore. Based on the gravity of the crime, death penalty will begiven without any warning to officials found guilty of corruption." KYKLcadres had, in fact, shot the Director of Education, Dr. Ch Jayenta on April 4,2006, leaving him critically injured. In a statement issued on April 23, theoutfit declared that it had prescribed the death penalty for him on account ofhis involvement in ‘countless acts of corruption’.

In another dramaticdevelopment, on April 16, 2006, the City Meitei faction of the KangleipakCommunist Party (KCP) detained editors of six newspapers published from Imphalovernight on the grounds that the newspapers had failed to publish a statementissued by the outfit on the occasion of its ‘raising day’. The editors wereset free only after these newspapers published the statement verbatim. Atwo-year ban was also imposed by the outfit on the Imphal Free Press, oneof the prominent English language dailies published from the state capital. Theban was revoked only after newspapers in Imphal went off the stands on April 19in protest against such interference. In the context of a completely ‘handsoff’ approach on the part of the Administration, such rare demonstrations ofsolidarity among the victims have been a source of a modicum of order in the state.

In a particularly appallingaction, on January 16, 2006, United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and KCPmilitants went on rampage in the Lungthulien and Parbung villages ofChurachandpur District, raping 21 women of the Hmar tribe. The incident wasreported only in the first week of March, as the victims had chosen to remainsilent fearing reprisals from the militants. After prolonged demonstrations the stategovernment constituted the Justice S.P. Rajkhowa Commission to inquire into theincident. Irrespective of the findings of the Commission, however, bringing themilitants to justice remains outside the current capacities of the government.Continuing militant excesses underline this point, and reports on April 28indicated that atrocities by UNLF militants had forced about 200 Hmar tribalsfrom villages like Damdiai to flee into bordering Mizoram. Similar incidents ofmilitant atrocities have also been reported in the past from Lungthulien,Parbung, Taithu and Tualbung villages. Further, an unidentified militant outfitforced people out of three villages in Kangpokpi sub-division of SenapatiDistrict following a factional clash on April 23. Armed militants astridemotorcycles effected large-scale displacement from the Sipichang, Saitu andSonglung villages, located barely 70 kilometres away from the state capital,Imphal. A portion of National Highway 39, connecting Imphal to Kohima, thecapital of Nagaland, has been taken over by militants, who have declared a‘curfew’ in the area.

A number of high profileattacks have been executed periodically by the militants, and the current yearalready accounts for the following:

April 11: Militants ofthe Zomi Revolutionary National Front (ZRNF) attack the Imphal residence ofMember of Parliament, Mani Charenamai.

March 15: Militantsopened fire at the house of Chief Minister, O. Ibobi Singh, at Thoubal Athokpamin the Imphal city.

February 8: A seniorjournalist and General Secretary of the All Manipur Working Journalist Union,Ratan Luwangcha, was shot at and wounded by three unidentified militants at hisresidence in the Imphal West District.

The state’s paralysis isinexplicable from a purely security perspective. Apart from high leveldeployment of the Army and Para-military Forces, Manipur actually boasts of adramatically higher police-population ratio, at 531 per 100,000 population, thanthe national average at 123. Apart from a comparatively top heavy structure –the ratio of Police officials from Director General to Assistant Sub-Inspectorlevel to that of Head constables and constables is 1.9 compared to the nationalaverage of 1.7 – the Police remain peripheral to the counter-insurgencyeffort, largely confined to the role of passive spectator. Thus, despite thegrossly exaggerated police-population ratio, central forces account for a bulkof terrorist fatalities in the state. According to the Annual Report of theManipur Police, its personnel were responsible for the death of 55 terrorists in2005. A total of 202 militants were killed in that year, according to the UnionMinistry of Home Affairs.

At the meeting in Thoubal onApril 23, where Chief Minister Singh confessed his predicament, the state’sGovernor S.S. Sidhu spoke of "our disgruntled brothers" and mildly suggestedthat the path they were following was "not the right one". Thistentative and morally ambiguous position is precisely what has undermined theauthority of the state and of law in Manipur for years now. There is an acutedisinclination to take strong action against the mounting excesses of "ourbrothers", and as long as such attitudes persist, Manipur will remain aliving hell for a majority of its people.

Bibhu Prasad Routray isResearch Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management. Courtesy, the South AsiaIntelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal