Manipur stable but tense: Army chief flags ‘incorrect narratives’

“There is a polarisation between the communities. The situation is stable today, but it is tense,” he said.

Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday said the situation in Manipur was “stable but tense” while cautioning against “wrong narratives” that were being spread and the pressing need to control them as a step towards restoring normalcy in the northeastern state that has been in the throes of ethnic clashes between the majority Meitei and tribal Kuki communities since May 3 last year.

Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi. (ANI)

“There is a polarisation between the communities. The situation is stable today, but it is tense,” he said, in the context of Manipur becoming a battle of narratives.

The false narratives include the use of bomb drones and infiltration by 900 foreign militants from Myanmar, the army chief said.

“Out here what we are looking at is that we should not allow wrong narratives to be built up. For example, there was this narrative of bomb drones. We went and checked and there were no bomb drones. Another false narrative was that 900 anti-national elements had infiltrated. We checked and there is nothing like that. If we can control that, I think things will be alright,” General Dwivedi said.

He was speaking at the Chanakya Defence Dialogue 2024, organised by the Indian Army in collaboration with the think tank, Centre for Land Warfare Studies.

On false narratives, the army chief said trouble began in May 2023 after rumours were spread about the burning down of the Anglo Kuki war centenary gate.

“I went to the ground and confirmed that no such thing had happened. That rumour-mongering led to major violence...and its stabilisation phase has still not been reached,” he said.

The remarks are significant because the violence on May 3 was triggered by rumours of Meitei people burning the war centenary gate in Churachandpur. This is what the Kukis have always maintained while the Meiteis have denied it.

To be sure, the case of the September 1 drone attacks is being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Though officers from the Assam Rifles and Indian Army in Manipur, requesting anonymity, have expressed their doubts over the use of drone bombs by Kuki militants that day, Manipur police and the state government have confirmed their use at the Koutruk village.

Police have maintained that during the attack, militants had fired bombs and bullets at the village along with explosives dropped by drones. Kuki groups have denied the use of drones and maintained that a fake narrative of their village volunteers using drones to drop explosives was being circulated by chief minister N Biren Singh, who is a Meitei.

“A senior IG rank officer, who is a neither a Meitei nor a Kuki, was at the spot in Koutruk when he saw drones dropping bombs. Police also recovered a few payloads dropped from the drones that had hooks attached to them. The payloads that had an impact fuse did not explode because the ground was not concrete due to the rain. All this will be probed by NIA,” a senior officer said, asking not to be named.

The input pertaining to infiltration of 900 militants from Myanmar was first sent by a senior bureaucrat (secretary to Manipur chief minister) on September 16. The input was then forwarded by state’s director general of police (DGP) Rajiv Singh’s office to different police units across the state.

Four days after the input was shared, security advisor Kuldiep Singh told journalists that unless the input is proved wrong, they must believe it is 100% correct and prepare accordingly. Following Singh’s statements, Kuki groups accused him of spreading lies propagated by the CM’s office.

On September 25, Manipur DGP and security advisor said in a joint statement that after verifying from different quarters the input related to infiltration of 900 trained Kuki militants from Myanmar to carry out attacks on Meiteis on September 28, the same could not be substantiated on ground.

The army chief also spoke of hardened battlelines in the state.

“We are trying to calm things down and restore trust. It will take time because when social fracturing takes place, it takes its own time to recover,” Dwivedi said.

The security forces have been able to recover a large number of weapons, he said. “About 25% of the weapons have already been recovered and twice as many weapons of local variety have also been recovered... The number of internally displaced people has come down from 60,000 to 40,000 through our perseverance,” he said.

Responding to a question on external support, Dwivedi said Myanmar was battling with its own problems.

“They also have some people who are getting displaced. Where will they go? They will only go to those places which are peaceful and ready to accept them. And that’s happening in Mizoram and Manipur. The people who are coming are unarmed and in search of some shelter and India will provide them food, shelter and support till the time we can,” the army chief added.

Since May 3 last year, Manipur has been split by ethnic clashes between Meitei community, which is in majority in the Imphal Valley, and the tribal Kukis, who are dominant in few hill districts. The violence has claimed more than 220 lives and uprooted tens of thousands of people.

Divisions still exist on the ground and people from one community are not allowed to enter an area where those from the other community are in a majority. Despite heavy deployment of the army and central security forces, sporadic violence continues. A large cache of arms looted from state armouries are still in the hands of civilians.