Nandita Haksar is a human rights lawyer, teacher, campaigner and writer. Her engagement with the people of Northeast India began while studying in Jawaharlal Nehru University in the 1970s. She has represented the victims of army atrocities in the Supreme Court and the High Court and campaigned nationally and internationally against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. In her capacity as a human rights lawyer, Haksar has helped to organize migrant workers to fight for their rights and voice their grievances. In 1983, she became the first person to challenge the infamous Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in the Supreme Court. She successfully led the campaign for the acquittal of one of the people framed in the Indian Parliament attack case. She has written innumerable articles in national dailies and journals and is the author of several books, including Nagaland File: A Question of Human Rights (co-edited with Luingam Luithui) (1984); Framing Geelani, Hanging Afzal: Patriotism in the Time of Terror (2009); Who Are the Nagas (2011); ABC of Naga Culture and Civilization: A Resource Book (2011); The Judgement That Never Came: Army Rule in Northeast India (co-authored with Sebastian Hongray) (2011); Across the Chicken Neck: Travels in Northeast India (2013); The Many Faces of Kashmiri Nationalism: From the Cold War to the Present Day (2015); and Kuknalim: Naga Armed Resistance (with Sebastian Hongray, 2019). In this interview with ABHISH K. BOSE she discusses the diverse underlying aspects of the conflagration in Manipur.
Excerpts from the interview
The fact finding teams consisting of parliament members says that genocide of the Kuki’s happened with more than two hundred and fifty churches were ransacked and hundreds of people butchered with the state machinery silent on the unprecedented mayhem. Hundreds of Kuki families are in refugee camps with a grave humanitarian crisis unfolding. How serious is the ground situation?
Just to put it on record that of the 60,000 people displaced some 40,000 people in Manipur there are 350 releif camps and many are with Meitei people. This is important to remember in the context of the humanitarian aspect of the violence. Meitei religious sites have also been desecrated.Having said this yes it is true that it is the Kuki-Mizo-Zo community which has been the target of the violence. They have been demonized as “outsiders” nacro-terrorists” and illegal migrants. Their villages have been burnt down and women raped and men beheaded. The situation is very serious because there does not seem to be any solution to the conflict which will lead to more hatred and impact of it will spread to other parts of the Northeast.
Is there any significant intervention from the part of the police or other agencies in dealing with the incidents of mayhem happened in the state post PM Modi condemning the incidents of ethnic cleansing and naked parading of women in Manipur? Does the police are taking measures to suppress the atrocities?
From the beginning of the conflict it was clear that the police was siding with the Meitei community and there have refused to or have been unable to protect the Kuki people from mob attacks; the most blatant and brutal act was when the police handed over the two women to a mob of men who stripped the Valiphei women and paraded them naked.There were several cases of exchange of fire between the Manipur Polic e and the Indian armed forces.The topmost security expert in the country has said that in India the state has the power to put down
any violence within 24 or 48 hours but the fact that the violence in Manipur has gone on for three months means that there is state complicity. The question is why?
In an interview with me author Sanjib Baruah said that the February 2021 coup in Myanmar has a bearing on the atrocities in Manipur. He also maintained that the current crisis is entirely ‘our own making’ instead of blaming China. What are your views on the role of Myanmar coup and China factor in the current stalemate?
Yes the military coup has some bearing on the events in Manipur. But not in the way the Government is trying to portray. The number of refugees from Maynmar who are fleeing from brutal military repression are no way a threat to the demography of Manipur. And I have been saying the way to deal with them is to register them, give them identity cards and humanitarian aid. That way they will not be forced to make false Aadhar cards and the Kuki population will not have to bear the burnden of protecting them.The situation is of our making but perhaps the fact that Manipur is a border state and has a border with Myanmar and Chinese presence in that country has some influence on the drug trafficking. This is what Vrinda the legendary police officer has said.
The internecine feud in between Kukis and Meitie communities have a long history. Now after the gruesome incidents there is a susceptibility of serious communal and ethnic polarisation wherein the people belonging to the two communities lost faith. Do you think this is similar to what has happened in Ahmedabad in Gujarat after riots? Is there a surreptitious undercurrent in which the conflagration is abetted by political interests aimed at electoral benefits?
The conflict between the Kuki and the Meiteis is not really comparable with the Hindu-Mulsim conflicts or violence against Muslims in Gujarat. There are several reasons: the most important is that the Muslims in Gujarat were not armed in Manipur all communities arte armed and have the backing of armed militants. It makes it just that much more deadly.Secondly, this violence in Manipur has at its root the battle for natural resources and at least one theory is that the ethnic cleansing of Kukis is a precursor to the coming in of corporations interested in having land to grow palm oil. By making comparisons with Gujarat deprives us of looking for specific causes of this violence.
The media in Manipur is allegedly crippled and compromised. How is the functioning of international media? Do they have enough independence to function?
The media in Manipur is dominated by the meitei community and even those journalists who want to express opinions which are critical of their community or organizations are faced with threats from armed militants. Indian media had no idea of the history of Manipur and it took them very long to understand the situation in Manipur. But there have been several reporters who have been sending excellent ground reports. These reports tell us what is happening but not why and who.
Serious demands are there for the resignation of CM Biren Shah from opposition as well human rights activists and other stakeholders. Do he has enough support still among the MLAs?
N Biren Singh does not have support of the ten Kuki MLAs who had joined the BJP, He does not even have the full support of the Naga MLAs But he does have the support of the Meitei people and of the Central Government and his party. And of the Prime Minister.
Do you have any formula for finding an amicable settlement to the disputes amidst the two factions Meties and Kukis so that a permanent solution may be reached for their mutual coexistence?
The solution will not be amicable or quick. But only if all the communities give up identity politics and evolve an alternative politics which respects the identity of each community but brings them together to save their land from corporations who are eyeing the natural resources of Manipur. But in the short run the people who have been wronged must get justice. Without justice there can be no solution.
A journalist with fifteen of years of experience Abhish K Bose was a staffer at The Times of India and The Deccan Chronicle – Asian Age. As a contributor, his interviews and articles have been published in Frontline magazine, The Wire, The Print, The Telegraph, The Federal, The News Minute, Scroll, The Kochi Post and the Asian Lite international published out of Manchester.
