Crimes against Humanity in Manipur

Recently, a video that depicted two Kuki–Zomi women being sexually harassed and paraded by a group of men went viral, bringing attention to the incident that occurred more than two months ago when the violence first started in Manipur. Reportedly, this horrific incident happened on 4 May and that on 18 May a first information report (FIR) against “unknown armed miscreants” was filed in Kangpokpi district of Manipur. The FIR was filed two months ago, but no arrests were made despite the charges of kidnapping, gang rape, and murder. It is only after this video went viral that a few arrests in this case were made by the police. It has also been reported that before taking the women hostage from the police custody, the group of armed men also allegedly killed the father and brother of the youngest woman among the two victims in this case. The graphic details of this case are enough to send shivers down the spine of every sensitive person, and yet it is unclear how the police administration in Manipur, after registering an FIR in this case in May, did not raise an alarm about the breakdown of law and order to the state government.

Another, and more alarming possibility, is that despite sufficient information about such similar incidents, the state and union governments showed no urgency or even refused to intervene in this situation. It took a viral video for not only the entire world but also the country’s own ruling government and media establishment to take notice of what has been transpiring in Manipur for the last two months. One only wonders if Manipur Police and the state and union governments would have continued to maintain an attitude of studied ignorance towards Manipur’s volatile situation had this two-month-old video not surfaced on social media. The outside world may have only now realised the gravity of the sheer breakdown of law and order in Manipur after seeing this video, but how is it that the state government was unaware about all such incidents (many of which may have not been recorded on camera) happening within its own jurisdiction? Connected to the failures of the state government are the lacklustre efforts of the union Ministry of Home Affairs, which, in what can only be called a bizarre interpretation of federalism, took the tokenistic step of deputing a chief minister from a neighbouring state to monitor the law-and-order situation in Manipur.