Recently, I happened to see an image of a young girl holding a placard that read: “Dear Mr Modi, Manipur is burning; 100+ deaths till now; 10,000+ houses burnt down; 75,000+ people lost homes; 40+ days – no internet. Why are you SILENT?” Similarly, a few days ago, I saw a tweet of Lieutenant General L Nishikanta Singh (retired), a resident of state capital Imphal, which said: “I’m an ordinary Indian from Manipur living a retired life. The state is now ‘Stateless.’ Life and property can be destroyed anytime by anyone […]. Is anyone listening?” We are not unaware of what has been on the boil since 3rd May, 2023, when violence broke out during a rally by Kukis in protest against the Meiteis’ demand for Scheduled Tribes (ST) category. The Meiteis are the majority in the valley in and around Imphal, while the Kukis are a majority in the hills.
In this context, Mr Karan Thapar interviewed Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Convenor, Northeast Women Initiative for Peace, for his YouTube channel, The WIRE. During the interview, Mr Thapar asked Ms Nepram about what her message was to both these groups. Her answer was, “Lay down your arms; brothers against brothers, please stop the fight; any issue in this world, you can negotiate […], talk out your differences, your pain, your fears, but stop killing each other, […].” The last question of Mr Thapar was, “What is your message to Mr Modi, who hasn’t said a syllable for forty-five days, […] about Manipur and what people like you […] expect from him? Ms Nepram replied, “The Prime Minister of a nation is like the parent of a nation; when your own children are dying, dead, killed, maimed, lynched, burnt alive, how dare you keep silent, Mr Prime Minister? […]? We, the women of Manipur, are crying; our cries are not of weakness, it is resolving the women of Manipur, […]; in fact, you should take moral responsibility for what is happening in Manipur and resign yourself.
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