Unease in the Hills, Valley Feels 'Betrayed': Decoding Modi's Visit to Manipur

Ahead of PM's visit to Manipur, Meitei groups have raised objections to the Centre's pact with Kuki-Zo insurgents.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Manipur on 13 September, making two stops at Imphal and Manipur. 

(Photo: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

Jangmal Mangte has had a tense week at his village, Sangaikot, in the hilly Churachandpur district of Manipur. Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first visit to the state since the conflict, Mangte, commander of the Sangaikot Village Volunteers unit—tasked with maintaining law and order in the village—is on high alert.

The time, he says, is ripe for potential miscreants from the valley or hills to foment trouble "to make the Kukis look bad". His team is working long hours and coordinating with local civil society organisations, district administration, locals, and the shadowy armed groups that remain pervasively powerful across the state, to ensure peace on the day of the visit.

But it isn't the long hours that have been giving him sleepless nights.

It's the dismantling of the commemorative dummy coffins—and the Wall of Remembrance—that the community had put up at the entrance to Churanchandpur district. On 8 September, officials from the district administration removed the installation.

Mangte, whose uncle was allegedly killed in May 2023 by a mob in Imphal, said this place stood as "a mark of our grief and anger in memory for those we lost to the conflict."

The Wall of Remembrance in Churachandpur.

(Photo: Rakhi Bose/The Quint)

"They [officials] said it was to not give the PM a bad impression of us. But what is there to hide? This is what happened. This is what we lost. Removing the installation is symbolic of erasing that loss."

Jangmal Mangte

At the same time, there is some 'confusion' among the locals over the terms of this visit, he told The Quint. That 'confusion' stems from a recent renewal of the SoO (Suspension of Operations) agreement between the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the civil body Kuki-Zomi Council (KZC), and around 24 armed insurgent groups led by the Kuki National Organisation (KNO).

Insiders claim the agreement was a key pre-requisite to Modi's visit to Manipur, which comes more than two years after the ethnic conflict between the dominant Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo tribes started. The delay, along with the renewed terms of the agreement, have left many in both the hills and the valley sour in the mouth ahead of the visit.

A subsequent notification by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on behalf of the MHA following the agreement has further caused ripples of anger and confusion.

The 'Free Movement' Anomaly

SoO refers to the tripartite ceasefire agreement signed between the Government of India, the state of Manipur, and Kuki insurgent groups in 2008. The agreement now focuses on paving the way for talks on the Kuki-Zo community's demands. Post the clashes of May 2023, the demand is primarily a call for the creation of a separate Union Territory with Legislature. The first week of September saw multiple meetings between the MHA and a delegation of KZC—which claims to represent all Kuki-Zo societies in Manipur—in New Delhi.

A separate tripartite meeting was also reportedly held among representatives of the MHA, the Manipur government, and SoO groups, though KNO spokesperson Seilen Haokip clarified to The Quint that "the Manipur government was not part of the discussion as the state is currently under President's Rule."

The Quint reached out to Manipur Police regarding the subject of 'free movement' but has got no response.

On 2 September, the SoO groups signed a fresh agreement with the MHA, in which it said that "the KNO and the UPF [United People's Front] as well as their constituents shall completely abjure the path of violence and abide by the Constitution of India..."

It also stated that SoO agreements shall be followed by tripartite dialogue, with the KNO and the UPF to pave the way for a negotiated political settlement under the Constitution of India, in a time-bound manner.

Following the agreement, the PIB said in a release, "in a significant decision, the KZC decides to open the National Highway-02 for the free movement of commuters and essential goods."

This led to instant confusion among Kuki civil society organisations who put out statement after statement, questioning the SoO agreement. KNO's Selien Haokip who was part of the delegation to New Delhi said the terms of the agreement were "lost in translation" in the PIB release, which "made things very difficult for us as we had to answer to our people".

While the PIB said that the signatories had approved opening NH2, KZC leader Ginza Vualzong who had been part of the meeting, clarified that NH-2 could not be "re-opened", as it was "never closed".

An important arterial road connecting Assam's Dimapur to Imphal, the road, Vualzong said, has always been open with goods regularly travelling across the route. He also clarified that the agreement was not an endorsement of unrestricted or free movement across the buffer zones. "The sanctity of the buffer zones between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo areas will continue to be strictly respected and maintained," KZC clarified in a statement.

BJP MLA Paolienlal Haokip also clarified to The Quint that cooperating with central forces was not the same as declaring free movement as stated in the PIB notification.

The hills and the valley remain divided by buffer zones. 

(Photo: Rakhi Bose/The Quint)

The Bogey of 'Territorial Integrity'

The second, and primary aspect of contention with the PIB release, pertained to the mention of the 'territorial integrity of Manipur' clause. The agreement, a copy of which was accessed by The Quint, notes that the SoO groups agree to 'abide by the...territorial integrity of Manipur.' But it also states that the Government of India has committed itself to a time-bound, negotiated settlement.

The PIB notification, while reiterating territorial integrity of Manipur, does not mention the 'time-bound negotiated settlement'.

Dr Kham Khan Suan Hausing, Professor, and former Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Hyderabad, pointed out that although the territorial integrity clause, introduced by the Congress-led Ibobi Singh government, has been retained from the original 2008 agreement, the inclusion of a 'time-bound negotiated settlement' within the laws of the Constitution was oxymoronic.

"On the one side, it is committing the SoO groups to "abide by" the territorial integrity of Manipur. On the other, it is promising time-bound negotiations. Article 3 of the Constitution invests unilateral power in the Centre to make or break or merge territories in the interest of political aspirations of people/powerful social groups. Indian state boundary is inviolable and sacrosanct, but state boundaries are amenable so in case of a final impasse, Article 3 can pave the way for separation."

KK Hausing, Political Analyst

Lost in Translation or Deliberately Vague?

Despite the misguiding PIB notification, Hausing states that by putting both clauses, 'territorial integrity of Manipur' and the part about 'time-bound negotiations' on the same page, the Centre has played a masterstroke. "By maintaining both the integrity clause and the potential settlement clause in the agreement, the government is trying to walk a tightrope, balancing between both sides while equally undercutting both."

Making the Kuki insurgents the key interlocutors, yet again part of a tripartite solution, suits the Manipur government's narrative as well of blaming the SoO groups for all the violence since 3 May, while devolving its own role in perpetuating violence.

Imphal-based political analyst Pradip Phanjoubam thinks there may be some 'solution' in the offing. "The PM would only come when some kind of a solution has been reached. If there was nothing he could do or if he would have to go back empty handed, he would not have come. He will not dirty his hands for nothing. So the visit is an indication of some kind of a way forward."

Meiteis Feel 'Betrayed'

But much like in Churachandpur where many have been uncomfortable with the growing role of the SoO in 'peace talks', Meiteis in the valley also feel "betrayed" by the Centre's extension of SoO. They had, in fact, been demanding the abrogation of it.

"Signing the SoO pact during President's Rule overrules the decision of the elected government of the state...The appointed authority of Delhi in the state cannot represent us (the Meiteis of Manipur)," said Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) convenor Athouba.

"The ongoing crisis in Manipur demands statesmanship, sincerity, and decisive action. The PM’s visit after such a long absence carries both symbolic and practical weight. It must not be reduced to tokenism or selective engagement. Instead, it should address the core issues that continue to destabilise the state," he said.

Kangla Fort in Imphal.

(Photo: Rakhi Bose/The Quint)

Valley-based insurgent groups like the Coordination Committee (CorCom), an umbrella body representing various armed groups in the region, has announced a boycott of the PM visit. In a press release, the outfit called for a total shutdown from 1 am on 13 September until the PM departs, while exempting essential services including medical facilities, fire services, water supply, and religious rituals.

Further, Phanjoubam adds that while the SoO agreement is being projected as a way forward, any talks about a politically negotiated settlement need to take the Naga question into account.

The new agreement mentions the shifting of SoO camps inward into the hills. If that happens, Phanjoubam feels that there is "definitely going to be an issue about land between Nagas and Kukis since Nagas claim many parts of the Kuki-Zo territories were originally Naga territories."

Manipur, with its array of ethnic, indigenous and tribal populations, sits on a delicate balance when it comes to inter-group relations, and land has been at the heart of it. Any change in this delicate balance may bring back ghosts of the past, or add new dimension to the current conflict. Nevertheless, Kuki-Zo legislators like Paolienlal Haokip remain hopeful.

"We’ve always urged the PM to visit the state and see for himself the separation and sufferings, hear our views and cries for justice and pleas for a political settlement that will ensure we will never again be subjected to such injustice and threat of existence."

Paolienlal Haokip, MLA, BJP

Incidentally, 13 September is a day that Kukis observe annually to commemorate the Jhoubi massacre of 1993 at the peak of the Kuki-Naga conflict. Grace, an activist from Churachandpur, says that "this cannot be a coincidence. The PMO knows well that it's a symbolic day for us".

Kuki-Zo bodies like the Kuki Student Organisation have urged people to come out in droves to greet the PM (the SoO groups are also ensuring the same) and listen to his address at the Peaceground in Tuibong.

The Prime Minister is expected to reach Churachandpur today at 12. 15 pm. Security has been tightened in both Imphal and Curachanpur ahead of the visit, which was confirmed on Friday.

With the PM scheduled to meet the internally displaced persons in both hills and the valley, those who have suffered in the conflict like Mangte hope it would expedite the process of justice for those they have lost. "The PM must visit the relief camps to really understand how life really is here," he adds.