Months before the ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur, except for a lone Kuki MLA from Churachandpur district voicing support for the protest march by Kukis in some districts against what they call interventionist forest laws as against tribal rights, almost all other MLAs from the Kuki-Chin groups were silent. In February 2023, the state government notified and carried out the eviction drive, deploying hundreds of police personnel and paramilitary forces to evict around 12 families at K Songjang, a village recently set up within the Churachandpur-Khoupum protected forest stretch.
According to the Forest department, K Songjang village is a new settlement established in 2021, much after the notification of the Protected Forest in 1966, and violates state forest conservation laws. Back then, the Churachandpur DC had ordered a verification drive in several villages under the Churachandpur and Mualnuam subdivisions in Churachandpur district to identify the villagers as to whether they were ‘illegal immigrants' from Myanmar or indigenous folks.
A show cause notice was also served to the Kungpi Naosen village in the same district, directing the villagers to vacate the land for the same reason. Thus, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), a newly formed conglomerate of tribal groups, was born to resist the state government move at all costs.
It was indeed strange, as other Kuki-Zo MLAs actually do represent the people and they are sworn by the Constitution and bound to protect and preserve its various laws. And again, this group of MLAs are on the side of the BJP-led government either by being with BJP or by supporting it. Yes, we understand that many of the legislators elected to the state assembly are beholden to militant groups for help during elections.
Regardless of the SoO agreement, Kuki militant groups were found engaged in its regular mischief of forced taxation, kidnappings and abduction and intimidation during elections. In the Kuki areas, all of the village land is solely owned by the chief and the villagers are his tenants living under his patronage, who are given temporary rights for tilling the land on the condition that a portion of the produce should be given to the chief, the landowner. It is simply because of this factor that new villages keep cropping up in Kuki dominated areas as the brothers of the chief want a slice of the pie.
According to a former bureaucrat, over and above a total number of 2,083 villages in the state 966 new villages are seeking fresh recognition. The new villages are reported to be 308 from Kangpokpi, 281 from Churachandpur, 205 from Chandel, 130 from Tengnoupal, 27 from Senapati 14 from Pherzwal, and 5 from Ukhrul district. One will notice the high number of new villages seeking recognition from Kuki-Chin areas. These new villages are mostly inhabited by a few families. Perhaps that is why, the Tribal Affairs & Hills Minister Letpao Haokip said that no new recognition would be given to villages having less than 50 households while also suggesting a separate land holding system in the hill areas.
It was on record that ITLF and the Kuki Students Union (KSO) organised mass rallies in all the hills districts to protest evictions. Protests were also held at Delhi's Jantar Mantar in February 2023. BJP MLA Paolienlal Haokip elected from Saikot assembly constituency; an upstart took up the cause against the state government’s action in Songjang.
The grapevine says, he has a grudge against the BJP leadership for not including him as a representative of the Kukis in the government formation. Further, he seems to have joined forces with detractors of Chief Minister N Biren Singh among the Meitei MLAs. He was quite vociferous in support of the May 3 Solidarity march. He was also one of the politicians openly criticizing the government and the Meiteis in the national media even after ethnic clashes broke out.
He was also very active on social media, championing the hate campaign. The BJP leadership, both at the state and central level, chose to remain silent. Action should have been taken a long time back. But it never happened due to political considerations and the situation turned for the worse.
