Credit – @Satsangi3523

What is the real genesis of the Manipur crisis? The crisis was originated at Churachandpur district during an ATSUM rally on May 3rd against the court ruling on Mar 27 regarding Meetei’s demand for inclusion in ST list of Indian constitution. But what is the real cause of the violence? Is it really related to the ST demand by the Meetei community? To understand a little deeper, let’s look at events preceding May 3rd!

1. On March 10, ITLF – a Kuki org led a rally against a recent govt eviction activity of people who encroached into reserved forest areas. The government eviction programme happened across all the districts in Manipur but people in Kuki areas reacted so strongly against the policy! Why?

2. On April 27, an unruly mob vandalised the venue and set on fire the venue of @NBirenSingh’s Churachandpur visit the next day to open an open public gym.

3. On Apr 28, SEC 144 CrPC clamped in Churachandpur and CM Biren’s visit deferred! Churachandpur MLA LM Khaute said that people’s main concerns were the eviction from reserved forest areas and the protected forest land and wetland survey! 7 arrested after mob set fire an open gym @NBirenSingh was said to inaugurate!

4. On Apr 29 fresh violence and clash broke out; mobile internet banned for 5 days; according to the ITLF the demonstrations were against the survey of the protected forests and wetlands; “people were enraged for not withdrawing the commando police from the district headquarters even after the student leaders agreed with the inspector general of police to stop violence”. RANGE FOREST OFFICE AT TUIBONG BURNT . Meetei temple and Meetei traditional flag in Thingomphai Meitei Leikai, Churachandpur was vandalised by Kukis

5. If one considers the chronology of events above leading to May 3rd, one will confidently say that the survey of protected forest and wetland and eviction of encroachers is at the heart of the crisis! On May 3rd, Bungmual Village Forest Beat office was the first that was vandalised and burned at 11:26am; see below the events unfolded:

6. But one may ask, why then the violence erupted based on a rally organised by ATSUM ‘an umbrella Tribal Students Union of Manipur’ having both Naga and Kuki communities? The violence only erupted in Kuki areas! If you look at the table below, Kukis are not the community most affected by the govt eviction drive; so is it a conspiracy to bring in the Nagas into their plan or to fool the outside world using the “All Tribal” tag and play the Tribal victim card! One thing is for sure, the Naga community was caught wrong footed! Same is the case for the org ITLF, spearheading the violent crisis, here also they use ‘Tribal’ tag in Indigenous Tribal Liberation Front while their armed militants are named as KNO, KNO, UKLF, etc with Kuki tag in them! It’s definitely handy with their propaganda campaigns!

7. Who are the main beneficiaries of the land the community is fighting for? Who are those encroachers evicted? A thorough and transparent investigation will prove it, hopefully one day the truth will emerge! But let’s see what the land is used for! Between 2017-2023 beginning, poppy plantation on a total of 18664.5 acres of land were destroyed and Rs 550.85 crore worth of Heroin and Rs 122.30 crore worth of poppy were seized in Manipur. These figures could just be the tips of the icebergs!

If somebody ask to name a few people, the following picture comes to mind?

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