The urgency for restoring peace only now !
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: March 09, 2024 -

FROM the way two top BJP leaders from the north-eastern part of the country, who are also in the council of ministers headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have started talking about the pressing need for resolving the now over 10-month long ethnic violence through dialogues and negotiations, it seems the proverbial light at the end of a dark tunnel is finally here and all that we have to do is to hold on a little longer to see the light appearing for dispelling the darkness around.

Unfortunately, things are not always what they seem; and this is a sad reality.

While Union Minister of Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, is quoted to have told PTI in a video interview that "negotiations are the only means to restore peace in ethnic violence-hit Manipur and returning the state to normalcy will be the Narendra Modi government's next phase of efforts"; Minister of State for External Affairs and Education RK Ranjan, who is Manipur's own son, is learnt to have written a letter to the Prime Minister urging for setting up a system that can bring credible civil society groups from both the Kuki-Chin and the Meitei/Meetei communities for sincere talks to solve the Manipur crisis.

Even if Rijiju was all wrong in putting the blame for the ongoing ethnic clashes between the Meitei/Meitei and Kuki-Chin communities on the order given by the Manipur High Court for sending recommendation to the Centre for granting Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Meeteis/Meiteis, the fact that he has finally opened his mouth to say that "returning the state to normalcy will be the Narendra Modi government's next phase of efforts" and the "problem in Manipur was not an uprising against the BJP-led Centre but ethnic clashes between two dominant groups" speaks a lot more than common men and women on both sides of the clash divide who have no time to muse over anything other than thinking about daily struggle for survival could ever possibly understand.

On the other hand, RK Ranjan, who has all along maintained that he was not able to speak about the conflict in Manipur in the Parliament due to a protocol disallowing any member in the council of ministers from speaking on matter unrelated to their portfolio despite his own private residence coming under the attack of angry mob twice since the conflict broke out on May 3 last year, seems to have finally gathered the courage to write a letter to the Prime Minister.

In his letter, RK Ranjan not only suggested setting up of a system that can bring credible civil society groups from both the warring communities which "are not coerced or influenced by armed militias and insurgents" for sincere talks to solve the Manipur crisis, but also tried his level best to convince the Prime Minister that Manipur is not being allowed to live in peace and return to normalcy by "some few political leaders, a handful of armed groups, and wrongly motivated scoundrels".

While only time will tell how the suggestion put forward by RK Ranjan for selecting "credible civil society groups' for sincere talks to solve the Manipur crisis and the assurance given by Kiren Rijiju that "returning the state to normalcy will be the Narendra Modi government's next phase of efforts" turn out, it is interesting to note here the urgency that has been left by the BJP-led NDA government at the centre to resolve the over 10-month long ethnic conflict in Manipur, which has been clearly reflected in what the two union ministers are saying or doing.

But coming at a time when the general elections to the House of the People is knocking at the door, and after hundreds of precious human lives have been lost and thousands of families rendered homeless in senseless violence that was allowed to go on without any sincere effort to stop, such concerns for urgent need to restore peace and normalcy in Manipur has shown how political parties and politicians could see nothing beyond winning the election and human tragedy of any kind is nothing but another opportunity for them to exploit for advancing their political goals.

This is simply despicable, to say the least.