Residents across Imphal on July 4 reacted sharply to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the ethnic violence in Manipur with many terming the speech “inconsequential” and several others insisting that Mr. Modi’s claims of normalcy returning, albeit slowly, in the State were “lies”.
At the Khwairamband Market in Imphal, 77-year-old Ima R.K. Radheshana, a vendor, asked, “Without doing anything at all, how will peace come?” She said “tangible things” need to be done to bring peace to the conflict-ridden State, but no such steps seem to have been taken so far.
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Manipur has been strife-torn ever since the ethnic conflict between the valley-based Meitei people and the hills-based Scheduled Tribe Kuki-Zo broke out in May 2023. The violence has killed more than 220 people, injured thousands of others and internally displaced over 50,000.
In his most-detailed remarks on the issue yet, the Prime Minister on Wednesday told the Rajya Sabha that efforts were on to bring peace in the State and that “social tensions” in the State were deep-rooted.
Mr. Modi’s remarks came weeks after Jiribam erupted in violence on June 6, taking the ethnic conflict to a district that had so far remained largely unaffected owing to efforts of the local police and security forces.
Reacting to the Prime Minister’s remarks, residents across Imphal expressed deep anguish and anger. Onil Kshetrimayum, a human rights activist in the city, said, “There is no difference between what he said last year and today. It is the same lip service and the same lack of seriousness to handle the situation.”
Most other residents said the Prime Minister was forced to address the issue because of the speech given in the Parliament a day ago by the Congress’s Lok Sabha member from Inner Manipur A. Bimol Akoijam. They said Mr. Modi spoke on the Manipur violence last year too when videos of a Meitei mob assaulting and parading naked Kuki-Zo women created outrage.
Jeevanlata Panjoubam, 52, a shop owner in Thangal Bazaar, said, “Last year too, he waited for too long and only spoke when the video of the Kuki women went viral. That clearly showed that he was seeing the issue from a biased point of view.”
She said the Prime Minister should visit the State if he thinks it is slowly coming back to “normalcy” and see for himself.
