In a report, titled “Facts on Manipur” released on August 21, the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) said that “some even alleged that a foreign interference cannot be ruled out” behind the three and a half month conflict in the state.
Dubbing itself a think-tank of Indian-Americans dedicated to the furthering of Indo-US relations and “setting right” the narrative on conflicts and issues within India, this outfit that has previously sharply criticised the USICRF Freedom of Religion Report as “biased” (May 2023), in facts goes out on a limb to sat that for FIIDS, “the state government of Manipur and the government of India have deployed all their resources to establish peace and provide relief to those affected.”
The recent USCIRF report, has for several years in succession, included India in the Countries of Particular Concern when it comes to the rights and freedoms of religious minorities. This is what the think-tank termed as “biased.”
Now FIIDS says: “In summary, the violence has historical baggage, inter tribes distrust, fear of economic impacts, drugs and insurgency as factors. However, it is important to note that, although religious polarization exists among the tribes, we did not find evidence of religious violence. Instead, it is based on an ethnic divide and historical distrust and rivalry between the tribes,” said the report.
“Various dormant insurgency/extremist groups took advantage to revive themselves with gun violence. This was further fuelled by funds and arms from drug mafias who grow opium and process heroin for export through Myanmar. Some even alleged that a foreign interference cannot be ruled out,” the agency said in a press release issued Thursday.
While the violence and protests have calmed down in the recent weeks, the underlying distrust still exists, and displaced people are not yet comfortable to return to their origins, they said in the release. Further steps, such as discussions, negotiations, major trust-building exercises, and help to rebuild their lives, are necessary to carry forward, it said.
The report will be shared with the US-based policymakers and think tanks, FIIDS said.
Violence that erupted in the north eastern state of Manipur on May 3 has not entirely ceased four and a half months later. Now, the Supreme Court of India (August 2023) has also stepped in with radical measures for re-investigation and prosecution of crimes. The distrust between the dominant Meities and Kuki tribal community, with Nagas thrown in has taken on frightening dimensions.
Denying the abdication by the state that has been widely postulated across India by Manipuris, opposition parties and human rights groups, the FIIDS media release says that it was the “wide social media circulation of fake news of graphic videos and pictures sparked lethal violence and resulted in over 100 deaths and thousands of people displaced from their villages.”
In October 2017, the same think-tank had played host to chief minister, Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chavan, RSS ideologue Ram Madhav and Prof. Arvind Panagariya, then vice-chairman of NITI, India and professor of economics at Columbia University.
“There seems to be a biased agenda of USCIRF generalizing isolated incidents without considering the complexities of India’s diverse population of 1.3 billion people,” foundation member Khanderao Kand said, according to PTI. “… It raises questions about their true intentions and credibility.”
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