The Modi-led government prides itself on mainly 3 pillars of governance – infrastructure development, nationalism push, and robust internal security. A regime that has so far avoided an all-out terror attack by miscreants from outside, may not boast so about its track record in culling internal disturbances.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the country is witnessing its most peaceful phase in the past 50 years with incidents of riots and violence plummeting to an all-time low under the Modi era. The above findings may seem soothing to one’s ears. However, not all has been hunky-dory in the north-eastern state of Manipur.
Manipur has witnessed a civil war-like situation due to large-scale and barbaric nature of violence since early May this year. Misconceptions, misunderstandings and misinformation have all proved to be a deadly combination in the Manipur saga. The first two factors can be attributed to internal reasons, but the last has been fuelled from outside the state and country.
One of the proscribed outfits that has been at the centre of this violence is the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur. There have been sufficient evidences to link the Manipur’s PLA with the PLA of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In other words, China has been waging a proxy war on India via hybrid means.
Hybrid warfare is a modern means of waging war against an adversarial state deep inside their territory without firing a single bullet. This is primarily the reason why such warfare is touted as ‘war by other means’.
At the centre of the conflict is a 70,000 crore rupees worth narcotics business. The incessant drug wars for the control of territories have accentuated the pre-existing fault lines in the Manipuri society.
According to estimates, in Manipur, about 35% of the total area under the narcotics cultivation is attributed to poppy cultivation, 12% to cannabis and the rest are laboratories for synthetic drugs. That such a wide and organized network of narco-terrorism can flourish without the involvement of people sitting in the highest echelons of power may seem hard to accept.
The fight for the land in Manipur becomes even more important due to its accessibility to the border countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar. Especially, following the ouster of the democratically-elected leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi by a military-led coup, the Junta in Myanmar has been hit by a storm of sanctions.
This has propelled the illicit drugs business in Myanmar, making it the world’s largest producer of synthetic drugs, leaving countries like Colombia and Afghanistan behind, that were traditionally known for the narcotic terror in their respective countries.
The origin of the conflict between the major communities of Manipur is not new and is deeply rooted in the unequal distribution of land and development in different pockets of the state. Either community has had just demands to safeguard their own interests. Successive governments have been unable to come up with a lasting solution to such demands over the years.
The recent judgement of the Manipur High Court in April this year directing the state to award ‘Scheduled Tribe (ST)’ status to Meiteis surely was not acceptable to the Chin-Kuki-Mizo group of tribes but it ought not have to spill on to the streets of Manipur.
According to the National Investigative Agency (NIA), militant groups from bordering countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar have entered through the porous borders of India and into the state of Manipur and are prolonging the conflict.
These reports are not only disturbing, but also indicate the nefarious designs by non-state actors from around India’s neighbourhood. The presence of foreign media on ground in Manipur a week before (April 29, 2023) the conflict (May 4, 2023) had broken out, too smacks of conspiracy that has been hatched from outside of India’s borders.
Self-certified experts sitting in remote parts of the world tried to give the conflict a communal overtone, so as to paint the ruling regime as intolerant and blood-thirsty. They were gung-ho in pointing out how the BJP-led government is unleashing atrocities on minorities.
The truth of the matter is that today’s Manipur issue is about drug trafficking, child trafficking, stirring a dormant conflict between ethnicities and so on — all done in the interests of the narcotic lobby sitting in China and elsewhere.
The innocent civilians of Manipur who are caught in the cross-heirs of this inhuman violence have little knowledge about who their real enemy is. Such is the nature of this hybrid warfare that the agencies are still looking for the smoking gun that triggered the conflict.
The lack of a well-rounded security doctrine makes India vulnerable to such foreign interference in its internal affairs. In the era of monumental scientific advancement and path breaking technological innovations, there is also increasing risk of security compromises and information warfare for a pluralist country like India.
The soil of Manipur is a blessed one and its people one of the most hospitable and welcoming. The belief in Shaktism (a Hindu denomination that worships the divine feminine energy called goddess Shakti) has had a long and rich history in Manipur. The weaponization of rape and molestation of women during this conflict does not reflect the Manipuri ethos.
A value-based and civilized state of Manipur would be able to wriggle out of this hybrid and proxy warfare only if its people fight it out as ‘Manipuri’ per se.
*Mr. Binit Patnaik is a freelance writer dealing with Indian Political System and International Affairs.
Email- binitpatnaik1@gmail.com