Manipur continues to burn despite Modi's peace balm

What Manipur needed was a signal flagging off the process for a political resolution of the issues that left it bitterly divided along ethnic lines

- The writer is an author and senior journalist.

It has been more than a week since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s long-awaited visit to Manipur, seen as a tentative first step towards resolving the crisis that has engulfed the Northeastern state ever since an ethnic civil war tore it apart more than two years ago. His personal appeal to both the warring protagonists— Kuki tribals living in the hills and the Metei people inhabiting the Imphal Valley—to make peace, not war, and the announcement of an economic package and development projects were meant to restore normalcy. Unfortunately, it is already feared that the visit may turn out to be just a symbolic gesture with both.

Less than a week after Modi travelled down the recently reopened Highway 2, the lifeline in Manipur that connects the hill areas with the Imphal Valley, unknown miscreants ambushed an army truck, killing two Assam Rifle jawans and injuring five others. There is now widespread tension across the state after the attack, the first of its kind against central forces since last year. On Sunday, the Committee on Tribal United (CoTU), an influential Kuki-Zo group in Kangpokpi district in the Sadr hills, announced a three-day economic blockade.

Even during the Prime Minister’s visit, the tension was visible. Hours before he reached the state, there was violence, as posters and banners welcoming him were torn down by Kuki protestors. Not long after he left, violence erupted again as rampaging Metei mobs torched the residence of a prominent Kuki leader and attacked other houses in the Churachandpur district, where just a day earlier the PM had issued an appeal for peace, listened to a group of schoolgirls singing traditional folk songs, and inaugurated a slew of development projects.