So, what shall we call the Kuki insurgency or militancy or whatever? When Union Home Minister Amit Shah is camping in Imphal to assess the ground situation of the present conflict and meeting with different stakeholders to find a peaceful solution, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan had the audacity to say that the situation in Manipur is nothing to do with counter-insurgency and is primarily a clash between two ethnicities and that it is a law and order kind of situation.
The Indian establishment had given different names to the various underground movements in the state of which ‘insurgency’ and ‘militancy’ is most prominent.
The term ‘insurgency’ is mostly used while referring to the armed movements of the Nagas and the Meiteis, while they chose to use the term ‘militancy’ or ‘militants’ in the case of Kuki underground. They might have a reason for setting different parameters for the various armed movements in the state.
CDS Anil Chauhan has said that the present conflict is between two ethnic groups and in no way related to counter-insurgency. We are confused as to what he is trying to say?
Is he trying to say that the Kuki militants under SoO are not involved in the incessant attacks on Meitei villages in the foothills or that if at all the SoO militants are involved they cannot be subjected to counter-insurgency operations? This begs an answer to another question as to how the central forces or for that matter security forces perceive the Kuki militants under SoO agreement? Have they ceased to be either militants or insurgents in the overall definition of counter-insurgency?
As far as our understanding goes, till a final solution or negotiated settlement is worked out, the groups either under SoO or ceasefire should continue to be treated as insurgents or militants and that they are governed by the agreed ground-rules during the period of SoO or ceasefire.
If there is any kind of violation of the ceasefire or SoO ground rules, action has to be taken up.
Under the SoO ground rules, the militants are supposed to be at the designated camps. Their alleged involvement in poppy cultivation in hill areas had even led to the state government withdrawing from the controversial Suspension of Operations (SoO) with certain Kuki militant groups.
In the immediate aftermath of the Dolaithabi incident, central forces began a physical verification drive at the various designated camps of militant groups under SoO in which they found most of the cadres and arms missing from the camps.
The inspection was a result of the public outcry against the inaction of central forces towards SoO militants who were out on a rampage of the Meitei villages in the peripheral areas of the valley and near the foothills.
The centrally appointed Advisor (Security), Kuldiep Singh, had admitted that several militants and arms were missing at the SoO designated camps in the first round of inspection and now the number of militants and arms are steadily increasing. This is out and out admission that SoO ground rules had been violated by the militant groups and central forces are yet to gain full control of the SoO camps or militants while the Meitei villagers near the foothills continue to live in perpetual fear of being attacked.
We know, the central forces or security forces continue to hold dear to the SoO agreement which they had painstakingly crafted. It is their baby.
The SoO agreement was first signed between the central government and the Kuki militant outfits brought under two umbrella organisations and it was only later that the state government was brought into the picture and hence, the tripartite agreement. And somehow they look so helpless when the baby comes out and makes his day.
