More than a year after it became an open war zone, deadly ethnic violence has resurged this month in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. The local authorities have reimposed a curfew and an internet blackout as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government struggles to quell the unrest.
The conflict, which started in May 2023, was ignited by a dispute between two groups, the Meitei and the Kuki, over the Meitei’s claim to receive a special status guaranteeing allotment of government jobs and the right to buy land.
More than 200 people have been reported killed and at least 60,000 displaced in the unrest. After pitched violence broke out, with villages burned and reports of sexual assaults widespread, the Indian Army moved in and effectively partitioned the state between the two groups.
During India’s general election this spring, opposition politicians repeatedly criticized Mr. Modi for saying little about the Manipur unrest and not doing enough to stop it. Mr. Modi has stood by the state’s chief minister, N. Biren Singh, a member of his Bharatiya Janata Party. Critics of Mr. Singh, who is part of the majority Meitei community, say he has exacerbated the violence with his partisan statements and handling of the conflict.
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The state government imposed the new curfew and suspended internet service after protests by students demanding peace. The police used force to prevent protesters from storming the official residences of the state’s governor and of the chief minister. The demonstrators are demanding the resignation of all sitting local lawmakers, of the leaders of the state police and of the state’s top security adviser.
India cuts internet service more often than any other country to contain outbreaks of unrest, according to a report by Keep It On, an advocacy group that monitors shutdowns. The Manipur government said it had suspended internet access to thwart “antisocial elements” who could use social media to incite the “passions of the public.”
The current conflict traces back to a ruling by the state’s High Court that could grant a special tribal status to the Meitei, who make up just over half of the state’s fewer than three million people and are the most politically powerful group.
Hoihnu Hauzel, a journalist and researcher from Manipur, said that the national government under Mr. Modi needed to move with more urgency to end the violence. His government, she said, had instead let the Manipur unrest “fester,” hoping that it would “die a natural death.”
“If two communities are not able to see eye to eye,” Ms. Hauzel added, the solution to the fighting “has to come from outside,” meaning from the national government.
source : newyork times