Land rights, eviction drives push Manipur to edge

Conflict between the state's BJP govt and 'illegal Kuki immigrants' snowballed into a fierce battle between the Kukis and the Meiteis

- PRASANTA MAZUMDAR

ABANDONED burnt houses, charred vehicles and military personnel on round-the-clock patrol bear testimony to the ethnic clashes between the Meiteis and the tribal Kukis in Manipur.

With the relaxation of curfew for a few hours every day, normalcy has somewhat returned to the Meitei-majority Imphal valley, but areas close to the Kuki hills continue to remain tense. Hardly anybody is seen on the roads there.

What essentially was a conflict between the state's BJP government and the "illegal Kuki immigrants" snowballed into a battle between the Kukis and the Meiteis. The Kukis have been restive for about a couple of years in the wake of eviction drives and a survey of reserve forests, wetlands carried out by the government.

Feeling targeted, they first vented their ire by torching the venue of a scheduled programme of Chief Minister N Biren Singh in Churachandpur. Days later, an altercation between two groups of Kukis and Meiteis at the end of a "tribal solidarity march", organised by All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM) in all 10 hill districts on May 3, was the spark of the violence which has still kept parts of Manipur on edge. The solidarity march was taken out to oppose the move for the majority Meiteis’ inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list.