Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi commemorated India’s Independence Day on Tuesday at the historic Red Fort in New Delhi.
In a speech at the fort, he claimed peace is returning to the turbulent province of Manipur after months of deadly tribal warfare, amid allegations from the opposition that Modi’s BJP party did not do enough to prevent it.
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoists the National Flag at the Red Fort in Delhi, on #IndependenceDay pic.twitter.com/lO3SRCM7kZ
— ANI (@ANI) August 15, 2023
“For some days now, we are getting reports of extended peace. The country is with the people of Manipur. The country wants the people of Manipur to hold on to the peace of the last few days and take it forward,” Modi said at the Red Fort.
“The state and federal governments are working very hard and will continue to work hard to resolve this peacefully,” he added.
Opposition leaders, who recently formed an alliance called “INDIA” to concentrate their fire on Modi and the governing BJP party, were not impressed with the prime minister’s Independence Day speech.
“Modi’s failure in the last nine years can be categorized under bad policies, injustice and perhaps most importantly ill intention. Rhetoric and bluster can no longer cover up this truth which is now evident to the entire country,” said lawmaker Jairam Ramesh, a member of the India National Congress (INC) party, which is the leading party of the INDIA political alliance.
The INDIA coalition tried to knock Modi out of office last week with a vote of no confidence over his handling of the Manipur crisis. Modi defeated the move with ease, then delivered a blistering 130-minute speech that accused the opposition of lacking patriotism.
“They love to defame India. They have no faith in the people of India, in the abilities of India. They have tried in vain to break the self-confidence of Indians with this no-confidence vote,” Modi said of his opponents.
“The way in which efforts are being made, there will soon be peace in Manipur,” Modi pledged last week. “I also want to appeal to the people of Manipur, the country is with you, this house is with you, we will all join hands and find a solution to this challenge.”
Modi’s supporters thumped their desks and chanted his name during the speech, while the opposition shouted “Manipur! Manipur!” and walked out after fifteen minutes. INC subsequently released a statement accusing Modi of being “evasive about” Manipur and “denying justice” to its residents.
Manipur has been restless for a long time. The current bout of violence erupted in May after the more politically powerful Hindu majority tribe, the Meitei, made a legal move to secure the same kind of racial preferences granted to the predominantly Christian hill-dwelling tribes, the Kuki and Naga. The hill tribes bitterly resented the more prosperous Meitei for seeking special benefits intended to alleviate their poverty.
Violent clashes broke out between the tribes, homes and churches were burned, and roads were blockaded – all creating new hardships for an already struggling province. The national opposition blasted provincial officials from Modi’s BJP party for failing to address the grievances of the hill tribes and resisting calls to send in the military. Critics said the Hindu nationalist BJP was unconcerned with the plight of the Christian hill tribes, or actively sided with the Meitei Hindus.
Modi himself did not issue a public statement about the conflict until mid-July, at which point over 130 people had been killed.
Modi spoke up after a video of two Kuki women stripped naked and sexually assaulted by a mob sparked outrage across the nation. The assault occurred in May, but the video did not surface until July because Modi’s government shut down the Internet in Manipur.
Modi alluded to the video in his Red Fort speech on Tuesday, saying that “several people lost their lives and our mothers and sisters were dishonored” during the Manipur conflict.
On Tuesday, a famous Indian chef named Suresh Pillai posted a more upbeat video about helping to locate and rescue the Manipur family of an employee. Pillai said the employee’s mother and sister have taken jobs in his kitchen, even though they only speak the provincial language of Manipuri.
“Now, the family is happily living and working together. I had the opportunity to meet them yesterday and honestly, their smiles made my day!” Chef Pillai wrote.
As the chef’s story would suggest, Manipur is not quite tranquil. About 10,000 Kuki women held a protest march in the Kangpokpi district on Sunday, angered by Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s claim that unrest in the province was caused by a wave of Kuki refugees fleeing Myanmar in 2021.
Shah said the Kuki refugees from Myanmar were numerous enough to alter the demographics of Manipur. He claimed fighting broke out in May because of rumors that the refugee camps of Myanmar Kukis would be formally classified as “villages.”
The women protesting on Sunday accused Shah of attempting to justify an “ethnic cleansing” campaign against their people. “We will pay a heavy price for Amit Shah’s tongue slip!” one of their placards declared.
This week also saw the Naga tribe use its influence in the Manipur assembly to block a Kuki demand for administrative autonomy. The Naga are politically allied with BJP and they strongly oppose Kuki efforts to carve their own state out of Manipur, in part because the Naga consider some of the land desired by the Kukis to be part of their own traditional homeland.
The Naga representatives were among 40 representatives in the Manipur assembly who asked the national government on Monday to rescind its “suspension of operations” (SoO) agreement with armed Kuki groups because they have violated the “ground rules.”
Kuki militants signed the SoO, essentially a cease-fire agreement, with the national and provincial governments in 2008 after a previous bout of violence that included clashes between Kuki and Naga tribals. The Kuki deny they have violated the terms of the SoO. The Manipur provincial government withdrew from the agreement in late June during the most violent of the tribal clashes.