The damning silence of Narendra Modi about the Manipur human tragedy is ill becoming of the Prime Minister of a nation. Within the last two months, he broadcast twice his much advertised ‘Man ki Baat’ about his government’s achievements and his giant plans to take the nation ahead on par with the developed nations of the world.  Yet, he had no consoling words for the suffering people of Manipur during these two months of continuous violence and human tragedy in that state. No order came from his office to tell Manipur Chief Minister to take action to stop the violence. No wonder, this sinister silence made one Manipurian ask: ‘Are we in India?’ 

Binalakshmi Nepram, one of Manipur’s leading intellectuals, Civil Rights Activist and scholar, expressed strong words of anger at the way the Prime Minister has kept a studied silence: Maun ki Baat. “How dare you Prime Minister to keep silent when your own children are killed, maimed, lynched and burnt alive? We, the women of Manipur, are crying. The PM’s silence shows he’s complicit. Does it behove you to be the Prime Minister of the nation with your sinister silence? In fact, you should take moral responsibility and resign.” Bold words from ground zero. She describes the situation in Manipur as “the darkest moment in the history of Manipur!”  She went on to point out a stronger step: “If order cannot be restored, they should bring in the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN Peacekeeping Troops.” (Interview to Karan Thapar, The Wire, June 15, 2020). Such words point to the total lawlessness and inability of the state to contain violence and human tragedy. 

It has been widely reported that Manipur’s Chief Minister Biren Singh is overly favoring his own Meitei community. The Meitei trouble-makers have had the privilege of looting guns from police stations, while the police either connive with them or remain as helpless onlookers. Crowds of Metei women show their might before the army and get their detained criminal leaders freed. Instances of Meitei criminals stopping ambulances and burning the patients inside the vehicle, even as the police show unconcern or complicity, only prove how uncontrollable and inhuman the situation has turned out to be. The Kuki tribals have been attacked, their villages burnt, and they have fled into jungles or crossed over to Mizoram. No one knows how many were killed.

Anto Akkara, journalist, writer, and Human Rights activist, in his interview to Shekinah news channel, describes Manipur situation as absolute breakdown of law and order and the failure of the Indian state. Akkara had visited the area and collected first hand information. He speaks of the situation where a minister’s house was burnt and the mindless violence, unleashed by criminals, going unabated.

Akkara says, ‘The failure of the Indian state should worry us. Vungzagin Valte, MLA, was attacked on May 4 by a group in front of the CM’s office as he was coming out of the latter’s secretariat office. His driver was killed. He got injuries on the neck. He was airlifted to Delhi and admitted in Apollo hospital. His family says, even after 50 days, no BJP leader came to visit them. Two Kuki senior officials working in CM’s office were attacked and they ran to the military camp, but were refused entry saying that the army had no order; they broke the fence and jumped in for safety. One of them saw his own house burning. There is total breakdown of security system. Who makes the security forces turn powerless puppets? The burning, destruction and ethnic violence goes unabated. Even the army finds itself helpless. One terrorist leader, who was party to creating terror situation, said Chief Minister was his heart. This shows where the terrorists get their support from.’

Akkara wonders how on May 3 and 4, within just two days of the eruption of violence, 247 churches were attacked, burnt or destroyed, unless there was meticulous planning. According to him, there is a deep-rooted sinister plan afoot beyond the apparent ethnic conflict. He says: “Gujarat was Hindutva laboratory. They tried it in Kandhamal, Odisha, but failed. Now, it is Manipur’s turn.” What Akkara has in mind is that the Hindu fundamentalist forces and their agenda are at work there. He says he has enough proof to say so. He speaks of the destruction of Manipur’s oldest Catholic church in Sunilu. After having done their mayhem, the criminals went to the convent and told the sisters: “This is Hindu state.” In another instance, a nurse in a hospital was told: “If you have to stay here, burn the Bible.” A Christian pastor was asked to get out of Manipur after forcing an affidavit from him that he would not return.

When and where will this mindless violence and human tragedy end? The Prime Minister is globe-trotting to advertise India abroad and to collect accolades and glories. But, here at home, he has turned a blind eye to the tragic situation in the North-East. It is said that, within the last nine years, he visited the North-East five dozen times but since the eruption of violence in Manipur, neither did he pay a visit nor did he utter a word about it. The sinister silence is dangerous.

On his recent visit to America, Modi was vocal about India as the largest democracy and is having the best set up for the minorities. He projected India where everything is fine and people live in harmony and social security. A tongue-in-cheek statement which few believed. 

The world knows how Modi was received in America. There were mixed reactions and street protests. Joe Biden had his political compulsions and so he played it safe. Perhaps the best warning shot was given by former U.S. President Barack Obama: “India will fall apart if the rights of the religious and ethnic minorities are not upheld.” He called on President Biden to take note of it and “take up such issues honestly with Modi.” Obama had in mind the threats and violence suffered by Muslims and other minorities in India and even the Manipur situation.  That was enough to expose India’s reality even as Modi waxed eloquent about India under his rule.  

One wonders if we have heard anything from President Draupadi Murmu about the Manipur tragedy. The nation expected her to express her anguish as the head of the State and ask the government to take serious action. But neither Murmu nor Modi has shown ‘the milk of human kindness’ in this crucial hour of need. 

As citizens we are forced to ask: ‘Have our leaders failed us? Why are they fiddling away while the nation is burning? Will they wait till everything is reduced to rubble and ashes and human lives sacrificed at the altar of political expediency?’ Those who play with fire and those who pour oil into it will have to pay a heavy prize. History will not forgive them. Be warned!