https://thewire.in/communalism/ten-things-that-emerged-out-of-a-year-of-violence-in-manipur
As per official records, the violence that broke out between the Kuki and the Meitei ethnic communities on May 3, 2023, has claimed 224 lives. At least 60,000 people in that border state have since been displaced; a large section of them still living in relief camps. Many have since fled their neighbourhood and escaped to Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya. With the loss of home and hearth, the future of such Manipuris, needless to say, is caught in a haze.
Meanwhile, over the last 12 months, the line of division between the Kuki and the Meitei leadership has only widened. To the strident demand of the Kukis for a ‘separate administration’ for them, the Meiteis have a standard answer – no division of the state at any cost. They have conveyed this to New Delhi too.
Meanwhile, the general elections in that beleaguered state were completed on April 19 and 26 without the participation of the Kukis. The violence unleashed by non-state actors, both in the Inner and the Outer Manipur parliamentary constituencies during the voting, and the demand of the opposition to the Election Commission of India for re-polls at dozens of booths have only held up the fact that what Manipur needed first was healing and a conducive environment for conducting a free and fair elections.
04/05/2024