It was in 1993, when Raj Kumar Dorendra Singh of Congress was CM of Manipur, that there was a flare-up between Kukis and Nagas that lasted from April to December, killing nearly 750 people and destroying 350 villages.
New Delhi
Manipur is not new to turmoil. The once insurgency-ridden, sensitive border state of the Northeast has witnessed strife, bloodshed, ethnic disturbances, and blockades for decades, starting just years after its accession into the Indian Union and later for over 40 years.
Killings and rapes were alleged to be regular. Nude protests by women to elicit a reaction from civil society, and the Central and state governments over sexual assaults, and to put an end to their horrors of being used as weapons of revenge went on for decades.
Arson over custodial deaths was frequent for nearly five decades when the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, (or AFSPA) was in action in Manipur, along with other sister states. After the princely state of Manipur’s Maharaja Bodh Chandra Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 11 August 1947 with the Indian Union, it took just two years for ethnic complexity to give rise to turmoil after it merged completely on 15 October 1949.
Between 1956 and 1972, Manipur was a union territory as the Kuki-Chin, the Meitei and the Nagas’ history of distrust made administration in the region sensitive.
Manipur’s first elections were held in 1972. The polls were held for 60 seats to the state Assembly—40 in the Meitei-dominated valley and 20 in the tribal hill districts. Until 2017 Manipur was mostly ruled by the Congress, which has more or less always been the largest party winning the elections every time.
Even in 2017, Congress had more seats than the BJP, which then made a coalition that pushed out the Congress after three consecutive terms of Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.
CONGRESS IN
MANIPUR
In 1972, Congress won 17 seats and was the second largest party with 19 seats going to Independents. In 1974, Manipur People’s Party (MPP) had 20 and the Congress 13. In 1980, Independents won 19, Congress 13. In 1984, Congress 30, Independents 21. In 1990, Congress 24, Janata Dal 11. In 1995, Congress 22, MPP 18; it was also the first time that t=he BJP made an appearance, winning one seat.
Despite being the then “double-engine” government, Congress struggled to rein in the insurgency in the Northeast along with Manipur, given the complexity of the history of the region and the sensitive tribal population.
In 2000, Manipur State Congress Party won 23 seats, Congress 11. In 2002, Congress won 20 seats. In 2007, Congress had 30 seats and in 2012, Congress won 42 seats. Even in 2017, Congress won 28, and BJP 21 seats.
MANIPUR’S WORST VIOLENCE
It was in 1993, when Raj Kumar Dorendra Singh of the Congress was the Chief Minister of Manipur, that there was a major flare-up between Kukis and Nagas that lasted from April to December, killing nearly 750 people and destroying 350 villages, as per the Ministry of Home Affairs.
In February 1994, there was a motion moved in the Rajya Sabha for Presidential Rule. The then Prime Minister P. Narasimha Rao, and Home Minister Shankar Rao Chavan did not take part in the discussion. MoS, Home, P.M. Sayeed responded in the Upper House.
In fact, Narasimha Rao did not take part in any discussions on Manipur violence in those nine months, as per the MHA. When the violence was at its peak in August 1993, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Rajesh Pilot, responded in Parliament. Written documents on Rajya Sabha proceedings show that while demanding presidential rule in the violence-ridden state, Sushma Swaraj of the BJP did not demand the Prime Minister to be present at any time.
THE MANORAMA TRAGEDY
Two months after the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led UPA government came to power at the Centre, a horrible crime was committed in July 2004, allegedly by soldiers in Manipur on a woman, the details of which were not revealed until 2014.
Thangjam Manorama’s “brutal and merciless torture” by a 17 Assam Rifles team was never revealed to the public.
A decade after she died, an envelope containing the enquiry report before the Supreme Court described how Manorama was picked up allegedly by “a strong-armed troops of 17th Assam Rifles” in the night between 10-11 July 2004 from her home in Imphal East District.
She was found dead with multiple gunshot injuries allegedly on her private parts and thighs at Ngariyan Yairipok Road, hardly 2 km away from a police station.
The report details how the incidents of the night began afte an Assam Rifles party crashed into her house. Manorama, who was “clutching on to her mother Khumaleima”, was dragged out screaming “Ima Ima Khamu (mother, mother please stop them)”.
The report alleged she was tortured on her front porch, as the family watched. It stated how her brother Basu remembered hearing his sister’s “muffled and dimmed voice” saying “Ie Khangde (do not know)” to the troops’ questions. It said the men then took her away to “places”. The murder gave renewed impetus to calls for withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
NUDE PROTEST
OF 2004
Commemorated as Anti-Repression Day, 15 July 2004 was when the historic nude protest was staged by 12 women activists in front of the western Kangla Gate. It shook the nation and made headlines across the globe but AFSPA would not be completely removed, even decades later.
MALOM MASSACRE
Between 2005 and 2015, around 5,500 people died because of political violence in Manipur.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, that applied to the seven states of the Northeast, granted security forces special power to detain, arrest or even to shoot suspected insurgents.
On 2 November 2000, in Malom, a town in the Imphal Valley, 10 civilians were shot and killed while waiting at a bus stop.
This incident was alleged to have been committed by the Assam Rifles. The victims included Leisangbam Ibetombi, a 62-year-old woman, and 18-year-old Sinam Chandramani, a 1998 National Bravery Award winner.
OKRAM IBOBI SINGH
Okram Ibobi Singh of the Congress came to power in 2002 and was Manipur’s first Chief Minister to complete a full five-year term (2002-2007) despite over 400 cases of bloody violence in the state for four years.
His unbroken 15-year tenure has been one of the most controversial, with many bandhs, agitations and blockades and protests like that by Irom Chanu Sharmila—who was on a hunger strike from November 2000 to 2016—demanding the removal of AFSPA.
As per reports, during Ibobi Singh’s 15-year rule, there were 1,728 reported cases of fake encounters, and the Supreme Court ordered an investigation into the matter.
THE BLOCKADES
It was also during Okram Ibobi Singh’s tenure that Manipur became infamous for blockades, especially between 2010 and 2017. Blockades lasted anywhere between 30 days to 139 days in a year.
During these blockades, the prices of petrol and LPG soared up to Rs 240 and Rs 1,900 per litre, respectively, causing a severe humanitarian crisis.
In 2011, Manipur experienced one of its worst blockades, lasting for 123 days. During that time, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi came under heavy criticism from the Opposition and civil society members for not uttering a single word while Manipur was engulfed in flames.
There was a severe shortage of essential commodities as fuel prices skyrocketed. Hospitals faced a scarcity of medicines. The 139-day economic blockade by the United Naga Council in 2016 that started on 1 November in Manipur brought the harshest hardships to the people of the state.
The UNC blockade cut off normal movement of trucks on National Highways 2 and 37—lifelines that pass through Naga villages—or along the 100-km Imphal-Moreh Road on the Trans Asian Highway No 1, to protest the Okram Ibobi Singh government’s decision to create seven new districts in October 2016.
Hardly 300 trucks and oil tankers were allowed to lift essential commodities twice a week to the landlocked state. During the Inner Line Permit movement, a student named Sapam Robinhood lost his life in police action in Imphal East
MANIPUR POST OKRAM IBOBI SINGH
As per government data the overall security situation in the North Eastern states improved substantially between 2014 and 2022 as compared to 2005-2013 with a 68 percent reduction in insurgency incidents (2005-2013: 10,204, 2014-2022: 3,238).
An equal percentage of security forces personnel deaths declined as per the same data (2005-2013: 397; 2014-2022: 128)
Civilian deaths, meanwhile, have come down by 82 percent (2005-2013: 2,298, 2014-2022: 420).
Currently, giving in to popular demand, AFSPA has been withdrawn from 19 police station areas in seven Manipur districts.