The recent interviews of the former DGAR who retired on July 31, 2024 on reaching the age of retirement can be seen as an effort to restore the image of the force, which is the oldest paramilitary force in the country. Assam Rifles claimed to have been established as Cachar Levy had got its name changed and was formerly known as Assam Frontier Force then Assam Military Police and finally Assam Rifles in 1917. Its quality can be gauged from the fact that during WWI 23 JCOs and 3174 sepoys were drafted to the Gorkha from this force and saw action in Europe and other battlefronts.
For a top honcho of the force to come out to defend it is not surprising and in fact it should be his duty as while in service he was bound by certain rules and regulations to speak to the press. However, after listening and reading all he has been saying, there are certain elements of truth but it was interspersed with perceptions and misleading statements to defend the force. To be fair it would be totally incorrect to blame the force for biases in the current crisis though there are units that have shown either biasness or incompetency or even lack of maturity.
The incident at Sugnu where a CO of a unit brought Casipirs and parked in front of the Police Station leading to serious conflict between him and his men and the state police, visual clips of which came out in the public domain does no good for the reputation of this force. This is a case of immaturity as differences among the various forces operating need to be settled through meetings of senior officers and not through such stupid show of strength, it does no good to the image of the force.
The claim that media played a major part in the damage to the reputation of the force was replied by a joint statement of All Manipur Working Journalist Union and Editor Guild of Manipur that clarified that the retired general is perhaps unaware of the recent happenings after his retirement or as the DGAR is not in operational command in Manipur he is unaware of the happenings in the state.
Like any organisation, there will be people who will have brought in certain baggage and the media is not different. Some will be far right, some right, some centric, some left and some far left. Further, their proximity to a community may instil a certain amount of biases in their report. So like the entire AR should not be painted with a single brush, so is the media. For the media, the question is how come correspondents from international media were already there on May 3, 2023 indicating that the violence was pre-planned and such media persons will not have come to the town if the rally was to be peaceful. Further, while among the Naga, the Tribal Solidarity rally was organised locally and peacefully, why among the Kuki, many from other districts travel to Churachandpur?
AR in Manipur has a fairly good intel system and his claim that they were aware of the tension after the orders of the High Court of Manipur must be correct but the complete silence on the call by the spokesperson of the ITLF for separating from Manipur in April, 2023 or the call by Mark Haokip for a Kukiland as back as 2021 was at the least, surprising. It is not only the AR that helped in saving lots of lives on May 3 and 4, CRPF stationed in Lamphel also saved lots of lives. It is true that AR contributed in the saving of a large number of lives be it at Churachandpur or in Manipur University campus or even Moreh and Kangpokpi.
Even people under target rushed to the Mantripukhri complex. There are even rumours that one column of the army took the initiative to evacuate some cadres of the KNO from Langol area on the night of May 03. So cherry picking incidents is not proper as at that time emotion was running very high and people are just ready to commit any act. Imphal valley is no longer imposed with disturbed areas under AFSPA, but the hill areas are still under the cover of this Act. After May 8, 2023 things were a bit peaceful with no major incidents and with curfew on and internet banned, but the call by the 10 Kuki-Chin MLAs for separate administration suddenly heightened the tension. He spoke that the surfacing of the naked parading of two women stayed put to all efforts to peace and that happened in the first week of July.
He conveniently forgot that Sugnu, which was comparatively peaceful with a peace committee composed of all communities from around the town formed by the local MLA, was suddenly attacked on the early morning of May 28 when the Union Home Minister was about to land in Manipur. Is AR completely unaware of the preparation of the Kuki-Chin for this attack or was it complicit to the attack as many had alleged? Can he give a reply to the allegations and the subsequent incident of a CO parking Caspers at the gate of the PS? Till now no one is wiser as to who circulated the video clip of the two women paraded naked, as since the incident happened on May 04, the sudden surfacing of it in the early part of July was with malafide intent to prolong the crisis.
It is true that the state government took time to react to the violence on the afternoon of May 03 at Kangvai and Torbung and if action was taken to control the mob that went on a rampage, things could have been different. As things were allowed to dither for some time and when action was taken, it was too late and things had gone out of control. The question is when violence started, why were they waiting for the call from the state government? Why can’t they act swiftly under this Act to contain the violence? Will they only watch when people kill each other as it is not presumed to be unrelated to counter insurgency?
The innocuous statement that Meitei in Moreh sought refuge in Tamu tried to imply that Meitei and the Myanmarese are hand in glove is completely untrue. Their relations are mostly for being neighbours separated no doubt by the international boundary and humanitarian service. They ran away just to save their lives and were looked after by Buddhists till they were brought to the AR camp in Moreh and then to Imphal.
It would be in the fitness of things if clarification is issued on the allegations that it was this force that helped in resettling the Kuki in Moreh in 1992 and that Kuki armed militia were helped by them leading to the Kuki dominating the border town. Earlier, prior to the 1992 Naga-Kuki clash, the number of Kuki in Moreh is minimal but after this, their number increased dramatically with some from other districts and the allegation is that many are from across the border, so much so that by now Kuki are in the majority, and tried to show off their muscle in 1995 against the Tamil and then in 2015 against the Meitei.
The retired general had joined the voices in the crisis, with allegations and counter allegations from both sides and this could have been avoided if he chose not to speak out after his retirement. Perhaps, he was trying to justify the acts that happened during his charge, but with selective offerings, unfortunately people are more convinced that their belief of AR being partisan must be true.
State Police also joined in stating that there is no Kuki police or Meitei police and that it is Manipur police, though due to the security climate, Kuki officers cannot be posted in the valley and Meitei in the Kuki dominated areas. One Sub Inspector of Police who was killed in an encounter with the Meitei in the Bishnupur-Churachandpur district's border was in accord with all benefits, indicating that the force treats all men equally. Rather than clarifying things with his statement, it rather makes it murkier. He met his match in P K Mishra former ADG of BSF who countered his arguments with force. It does no good to the central forces when two senior retired officers from different forces counter each other and this will definitely have an impact on the ground, and that should have been avoided. The war of words will continue and it has become difficult to separate the truth from the falsehood.
(The views expressed are personal)
