Impose president’s rule in Manipur, retired bureaucrats urge Centre

With renewed confrontation between civilians and security forces, altercations between Manipur Police and the Indian Army and fresh ‘looting’ of arms and ammunition from armouries in the state, there should be no further delay in imposing president’s rule in the state, said the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a body of retired civil servants from All India services in a statement on Sunday.

The statement urged the central government to appoint, as advisors to the governor, experienced former administrators and police officers who can empathetically interact with the local populace and restore the trust of all sections of the citizenry in the local administration.

Expressing deep concern at the indifference of the state government in providing adequate relief and rehabilitation measures, the CCG urged that relief, rehabilitation and compensation be ensured to the affected individuals and families in a non-partisan manner.

The former civil servants also demanded severe punitive action against those who are inciting people and fomenting the unrest and spreading hate speech. Disarming the population and recovering the looted arms and ammunition should be the top priority of the administration, they emphasised in the statement.

The statement also demanded that the Union Government ensure:

(i) suitable shelters to the affected, either in public buildings or in requisitioned private premises, with proper hygiene and security, for as long as a return to their homes is not feasible;

(ii) free food supplies for those in the relief camps and free PDS rations for internally displaced people residing elsewhere;

(iii)MNREGA works that could provide income to those affected;

(iv) childcare, health, trauma care and education services that would meet the needs of those in the relief camps, especially mothers and children, including newborns

(v) in the medium term, providing assistance for rebuilding damaged houses and other public premises.

The statement highlights the failure of the Manipur state government and the state police in protecting the life and property of their citizens, which has created the conditions for large scale arson, lynching, collective rape, vandalism, looting, mob violence and obstruction of central security forces from carrying out their duties, followed by armed attacks and retaliation by both communities.

Frowning at the role of the chief minister, the statement notes, “A high constitutional functionary, like the Chief Minister, is expected to restore the rule of law and take steps to cool inflamed passions, rather than stoke them further.”

“The failure to take strong action against militant organisations of the Meitei community, the Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, which openly issue threats of “annihilation” and “blowing up”  of the tribal Kuki-Zo minority, or the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), which advocates a “Manipuri national war against Chin-Kuki narco-terrorism” and the arming of civilians, confirm fears about the partisan approach of the state administration,” notes the statement.  

The same applies to the approach of the law enforcement authorities of Manipur state to the aggressive actions of the Meira Paibis, which include their preventing the army from apprehending those engaged in violent activities. 

While expressing his outrage over the ghastly stripping and parading naked of two women, the alleged gangrape of one of them and the murder of two male members, all of the same family, the Prime Minister, the statement notes, “seemed to draw an equivalence between this incident in Manipur and other incidents in states like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, though the incidents are not at all comparable.”