♪ >> ethnic violence has engulfed india's northeastern manipur state since early may. can new delhi bring peace to this often overlooked part of the country? this is "inside story". ♪ >> welcome to the program, dareen abughaida i dareen abughaida am -- i am dareen abughaida.

it is also a strategically significant border region and home to different ethnic, religious and linguistic groups. among these states is manipur. it suffered ethnic tension and conflicts involving armed separatist movements for decades. rebel groups fight over land, resources and identity. it is experiencing its worst violence of the 1990's. while long-running tension has escalated into violence. >> this is northeast india, made up of eighth -- eight states. this region borders china, bangladesh and myanmar. people living there have long been divided along ethnic lines. the valleys are dominated by the majority community that is mostly hindu. the hills form 90% of the states area and are home to the minority.

manipur lies next to me and mark. the 2021 who let people from another community flee to find safety. the states chief has called the refugees serious threat to its demography and drove to identify undocumented migrants. the state government has accused them of clearing protected forest land to cultivate tracks. violence in the state is the worst in decades. it began in may after of the manipur high court recommended the community beat granted special tribal status. this shows some benefits to rectify discrimination. but they fear this will allow others to access protective resources. they have often complain about land by hill tribes being

protected pretending others from being -- from buying any. more than 100 people have been killed in the violence and tens of thousands of people forced from their homes. thousands of security forces have been applied to the state. the internet has been shut down in a curfew imposed. >> human rights watch us are calling on the indian government to investigate killings by ethnic groups in manipur. it says accounts of and partisan involvement has increased distrust of the authorities. it is also urging new delhi to work with community leaders to restore security or human rights watch also says the government internet blackout has severely hindered information gathering and reporting by the media and civil society groups. the government says the shutdown is necessary to stop what it called the spread of disinformation and false rumors. let's bring in our guests,

bhagat oinam who is a professor at jawaharlal nehru university and chairperson of the special centre for the study of north east india. ngamjahao kipgen, and associate professor at indian institute of technology guwahati. his work focuses on ethnic identity, politics and ethnic nationalism in northeast india. and we have subir bhaumik, a veteran journalist, he has been in manipur state covering the republic. he is also an author of two books, "insurgent crossfire" and "troubled periphery" . with the internet shutdown, accurate information could be hard to come by. i will begin with you. you were just there this week. tell us what you saw and what the situation was like. >> it was a nightmare for journalists because you may be

able to get a lot of information on a story like this, but if you cannot trust without a doubt, sending backed the story where you want to, turns out to be a nightmare. that is number one. but apart from that, what acts -- what adds is the internet shutdown, rumors are flying. when that happens, in such a combustible sensitive situation, it adds to the tension, to the points of conflagration, the intensity of conflagration, and it also adds to the duration of conflict. >> what did you see? >> it was clearly evident that the state is still in the midst of substantial chaos, that law

and order agencies are not working, the indian paramilitary forces are working. but there is a major problem of coordination between the central paramilitary forces and the state police. which did not do very well when some policeman got carried away by ethnic passions and took out weapons and give it to people of their own communities, which has now added to a serious problem. now they are tasked with recovery of this weapon which went out of the police armory. that is a very serious situation here when the police get carried away by passions, and weapons meant for police goes out to rioters and mobs, that is a very dangerous thing. it becomes difficult to control it. you do not see the violence and dying away anytime soon.

the erosions are taking place now and then, here and then. a lot of people who have weapons are out to settle scores. >> let me bring in ngamjahao kipgen to tell us, take a step back, help us understand what is behind the violence. are they primarily ethnic divisions? >> the situation of unrest unfolding in manipur, which borders india and myanmar has been gripped by ethnic classes between the dominant value-based people and the kukis communities who belong to another tribe. going back to how it begins, in april, a protest which was organized the tribal student

union, a demand for -- violence began when miscreants, which has a very significant -- significant to the kukis. at least 100 people have been killed so far, hundreds more injured, and tens of thousands have been internally displaced since the other evening. i want to add that the use of a mortar bombs, drones, on the innocent kukis, is full blown who against these communities. what you can experience is akin to many ukraine.

>> let's bring in bhagat oinam. it sounds like the high court directive to the manipur seems to be the immediate trigger for the latest round of violence between the meitei and kukis. what can you tell us about the anger that has been simmering? >> it is a very complex affair. it was against giving scheduled exchanges to the majority meitei , and a protest from the tribal communities. it happened and all of the hill districts, but somehow the violence erupted. this is not the issue.

this somehow was a triggering point, i still do not understand, why an issue would have led to violence. because this is an institutional apparatus, issues -- argue out that so and so community must not be given or must be given, there is always a democratic space to look into. what one wonders is now today, it is around almost 42 days, and the violence still does not seem to stop. there is always a possibility of starting a violence at any time. this ics twofold reasons. -- i see as twofold reasons. one is a political discourse, the conflict discourse which has

perpetuated the violence, and what has happened on the ground. to the first point, the kukis, had been asking for quite some time for a separate administration, to be away from the government of manipur. on the other hand, the majority maintains -- majority meitei are against the separation because it was a kingdom earlier before it became part of india. manipur was an independent kingdom which became part of india in 1949. >> let me just jump in for the sake of time. one more question for you. how do you were spun to claims

that over the past few months, the government has reportedly taken actions and decisions which generate a is of discrimination and insecurity among the kukis. >> there is no discrimination, i do not understand what that is all about. the issues of tribe status, to be given to the majority meitei would be -- through institutional mechanism. i am more concerned with the kind of violence that has been corrupting for an issue which is not supposed to bring any violence. >> let me bring in ngamjahao kipgen, the meitei community, even though they constitute 53% of the population, they are only confined to about 10% of the land in the valley.

do you think the disproportion of distribution between the meitei and tribes people is the crux of the problem? >> yeah, because the demand for this status, the tribals does not have issue or problem as such. but the larger agenda, the problem with the tribal communities, they feel that if the status is being given to the meitei, who are much more advanced, politically dominant, and also represent 46 out of the 66 of the state assembly. they are in a way a much more better positions. the communities are apprehensive

this particular granting of status would allow them to have more land. therefore the constitutional providence that -- which has protected the tribal communities of their land, that is not allowing the non-tribals access to land in the hill areas. >> let's talk abut the government response. some say the prime minister has appeared indifferent to the situation. there has been no meeting, no visit to the area, he was campaigning elsewhere in the country when the violence began. why do you think there has been silence on the part of the prime minister? >> actually, to be fair to the prime minister, this is a matter which is not in his domain.

it is something that is the modi style that he gets involved in smaller affairs, he wants to project an aura, and therefore when things go wrong, people get accusing. the problem here is simple and straight. it is a complete failure of the state government which is run by the bjp. they have not only understood the dynamics of manipur properly, they have tried to impose their pattern of delhi. they have tried to project it as a political crisis. they have showed it as a hindu christian thing. the other main issue here is that they have not tried to come up with a political solution on even attempting to start and

interethnic dialogue. a dialect between the different communities which are -- with each other. >> do people in manipur have confidence in the bjp government? >> without getting into party politics, i can fairly clearly say that communities today have grave reservations about the present state government. and therefore they feel that the government first did not have any idea that this would lead to a violent way. they could not get a grip on the situation fairly soon, and even went the central forces came in large numbers, this problem is continuing. and partly because some politicians on either side are trying to fan the flames for their own interest.

it is a failure of the state government. >> bhagat oinam, do you agree with that? what do you think new delhi should be doing at this point? >> it is easy to blame the state, but how it all happened, nobody seems to be bothered. the whole issue came up since 2021. state governments trying against politicization of opium poppies, which leads to a production of drugs and international trade of narcotics that has been in operation. the state government tried to stop the cultivation of opium poppies and somehow this has created a nexus of the mafia, politicians and others, even terrorist groups. this forces against the state

government. artificially created, constructed violence. the real issue behind is this drive by the state government against cultivation of poppies. >> i saw you shaking your head. give us your comments briefly. >> i don't buy the thesis that this whole crisis erupted because the state government was trying to stop poppy cultivation. a lot of drugs coming into manipur, and a lot of important people are involved with these gangs that patronize the people. the police officers, who after resigning, has a detailed story. very powerful people are

involved in this drug trade. and therefore it is a misnomer to blame tribal communities for planting poppies. they are doing it because there is no crop which the government has been able to give to this poor tribal farmers. >> let me bring in ngamjahao kipgen. let's talk about the violence threatening not only manipur, but what about the neighboring states and the region? >> get i just add a few lines? >> very briefly. >> i totally agree when he says that the angle of the narco terrorism is hardly involved in the violence. we can see that the collapse of

law and order from day one, and we see an ample evidence to suggest that two radical groups, who are being considered as the militant organizations, and in one of the interviews, a facebook post made by the chairman of the committee, openly and cited -- incited his supporters. this happened not as a mere occurrence, this was a preplanned political move. >> onto my question, what does this mean for the neighboring states and india as a whole? >> this is going to have a large

ramification, not only in the state of manipur, is coarsely hill and valley has been divided since the colonial period. in the postcolonial period, they have been brought into the arrangement. even after years of india's independence, i don't see any sort of coexistence or trust building or inclusive forms of agendas on the part of the other sides of the community. community operations, one can see that there is a lot of proximity. if i bring in the groups, which are also involved in a lot of the drug and gun network. most of the chinese and other

incidents groups. therefore this nexus and ideological proximity can destabilize. >> do you agree with that? that this can have a ripple effects? >> you should see the picture of what is happening. in myanmar there is a civil war. the military is all out offensive against the minority communities. many of these militants have moved into indian site. so is in bangladesh, there has been a military offensive

happening. there is already violence in the neighboring two countries. many migration, -- this population has come in in large numbers, and many of the armed groups, have sophisticated weapons. this is creating havoc in the territoriality inside the country. this i say again, the narco terrorism is linked with this. i am not blaming the farmers, this is something for the entire international community. >> in the absence of a political settlement, what is going to happen next? >> i agree with the gentleman

who spoke just now. unless india is in a position to influence peacemaking in myanmar, it cannot just solve the manipur by itself. as the military gets more aggressive, and to the fighting gets more intense, and provinces joining manipur, where a lot of refugees have come in. this problem cannot be controlled. there is also a drug angle to this. but as far as a political solution, the government of india has to take an initiative. it could connect to the military, so india cannot just wait and watch, which is -- and leave everything to us. india has to take an initiative for peacemaking environment. and also in manipur, they should

get a die linke going between the communities. >> there are reports that suggest the djp's -- bjp's asked the government to suggest a separate -- how likely do think that is going to happen? >> it is not just the bjp, some of them from the ruling bjp analyst. all of them have taken a stance after these violence that started. one of the kukis was the most killed. now they are taking a stance that they do believe in the

policy of the government and the center, but no longer believe in the -- therefore they have been demanding. in consultation with the civil society of organizations and stakeholders, the separate administration is the only solution at this point of time. >> as i had said that, 75 years of independence has been living together with counterparts. we could see a lot of socioeconomic disparities. >> i will have to jump in there, we have about 30 seconds. how do you think it is going to play out? >> the piece has to be our priority at this point.

if peace cannot be brought out unless people are disarmed. both in the hills and in the valley, the militants have come out. there are several insurgents organizations who are having dialogue with the government of india. they have to be disarmed. and to the public who have taken up arms. unless you disarmed the people, the violence may continue. this can only be possible if you stop this. >> on that, we will have to leave it there. thank you so much from my guests. bhagat oinam, ngamjahao kipgen and subir bhaumik. you can see the program by visiting our website aljazeera.com. you can go to our facebook page for further discussion. you can join the conversation on twitter, our handle is

@ajinsidestory. thank you for watching, by for now.