Christians skeptical of new roadmap for peace in India’s Manipur

Sep 18, 2024

MANIPUR, INDIA: Christian leaders have expressed skepticism over the federal government’s new “road map” for peace in India’s strife-torn Manipur, where the majority of Hindus and ethnic Christians have been fighting for 16 months.

“The situation could have been different had the government taken proactive steps soon after the violence started on May 3 last year, said a senior Church leader, who did not want to be named due to security reasons.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital, New Delhi on Sept. 17, federal Home Minister Amit Shah said a “road map” for peace in Manipur was ready.

“We have prepared a road map to take different initiatives for the situation in Manipur,” bordering civil war-hit Myanmar, which is also a leading producer of opium in the world, said Shah, the second in command in the government.

“We are talking to the Kuki and Meitei groups,” Shah said but refused to divulge details.

However, it is difficult to achieve a breakthrough as both parties continue “to stick to their guns," the Church leader said.

The church leader alleged that the announcement of the “road map” for peace comes on a politically important day for the government.

“If anyone can settle the crisis, it is only the federal government,” the Church leader told UCA News on Sept. 17.

Shah spoke at the press conference about the significant achievements of the first 100 days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third consecutive term.

Modi’s new federal government came to power on June 9.

The prime minister has not visited the strife-torn state although his pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party runs its government under the leadership of Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

The sectarian violence started on May 3 last year when indigenous students were protesting a court move to confer tribal status on the influential Meiteis.

The violence has already claimed more than 230 lives and uprooted 60,000 people, most of them Christians. More than 300 churches have been set on fire.

Nearly 53 percent of northeastern Manipur’s 3.2 million people are Meitei Hindus, while 41 percent are Christians, mainly Kuki-Zo tribal people.

Christians are against the pro-Hindu government’s move to include prosperous Meitei Hindus in the affirmation action policy that would guarantee them reservation quotas in education and government jobs.

Kuki-Zo Christians are demanding a separate administration in the hilly areas where they are dominant. The Meiteis who stay mainly in the valleys want Kuki-Zo people removed from their areas.

That would mean Kuki-Zo Christians, who are now displaced and live in relief camps and relatives' houses, would not be able to return to their homes, the Church leader noted.

According to Christians, Meiteis have already destroyed more than 11,000 homes of Christians and some 360 churches in the valleys to “wipe off even the traces” of their existence.

Singh and his pro-Hindu party have been blaming the thriving narcotic trade in Myanmar as the root cause of ethnic strife in the hilly state.

Christians in Manipur have close ties with their counterparts in the conflict-stricken Myanmar in Southeast Asia.

On Feb. 6, India announced that the entire 1,643-km-long border with Myanmar would be fenced.

“Fencing work in 30 km has been completed" and the budget for the fencing is ready, Shah said.

“We are hopeful to bring the situation under control,” with the new road map, Shah said.--ucanews.com