Tensions simmering in Manipur since March 2023, we kept the troops ready even before May 3: former Assam Rifles D-G 

Former Director-General of the Assam Rifles, Lieutenant-General Pradeep Chandran Nair (retd), said the only serious attempt by the security forces for a dialogue between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities in Manipur last year was derailed, when a video of two Kuki-Zo women being stripped and paraded by a mob surfaced on social media on July 19.

In an interview with The Hindu, Lt.-General Nair said though the violence erupted around 2.30 p.m. on May 3, 2023, the State government requisitioned the deployment of Assam Rifles at 8.30 p.m. as the administration was trying to assess if it could handle the violence on its own.

The Assam Rifles is deployed for counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast and is the primary border-guarding force along Myanmar. 

Also read: Manipur ethnic conflict characterised by brutality: Data 

Lt.-General Nair said there were inputs about simmering tensions between the two communities since March 27, 2023, following a Manipur High Court order. The court directed the State government to submit a recommendation for the inclusion of Meiteis in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list and to consider the proposal preferably within four weeks. He stated that the Assam Rifles and Army had kept troops on standby even before May 3, when violence broke out simultaneously at “three to four places” after a tribal solidarity march to protest the high court order. 

“We get criticised that it is a total intelligence failure, but we were quite aware. From the time the court directives were passed, the rumblings could be heard, the undercurrents were there,” said Lt.-General Nair, who headed the force from June 1, 2021 to July 31 this year.

He added that without receiving any directions, the Assam Rifles and the Army decided that there was a necessity to keep some columns ready. “We assumed that 15-20 columns would be enough at Churachandpur and Imphal, from the time of the court decision. After the State requested deployment on May 3, our columns were out on the ground within 30 minutes. If we we were not ready, then the killings would have been much higher, at least 2,000 to 3,000 people would have been killed in the first few days. The Inspector-General, Assam Rifles, was at the Chief Minister’s Office at 3.30 p.m., yet we waited for requisition which came at 8.30 p.m.,” he added. In the first one week, around 65 people were killed in the violence and in the past 16 months, at least 237 people had been killed and more than 60,000 people displaced. 

He added that one of the ways to solve the current crisis is through backchannel discussions among the two communities, adding that the Assam Rifles and the Indian Army initiated a dialogue between the two communities in June 2023 after Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit from May 31-June 3. “We got in touch with some of the people, including from Meira Paibi and important civil society organisations, there was a lot of reluctance. Finally they agreed to meet, sometime in first week of July. We wanted to meet at a neutral place and it was agreed that it will be in Guwahati. But unfortunately, a week or 10 days later, the video of women being stripped and paraded went viral.... and then it took a totally different turn, the rest as they say is history... Because feelings got caustic after that, both the communities were not willing to meet thereafter. This was one of the sincere attempts we made, I am not sure of any other attempt made by any other organisation. We got the Army on board,” he said. He mentioned that involving the political leadership was the next step. 

On being asked if the current crisis was a security or a political issue, the retired D-G said, “Security forces can only try and arrest violence which they have done to a large extent... We saved nothing less than 2,000-3,000 lives between May 3-5.... by the third night we had 100 columns in place. The number of people that we put in our vehicles with no support from the State government, obviously because they themselves were in a flux, we transported hundreds and hundreds of people through night and day and saved them.”