New Delhi: On October 24, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supremo Mohan Bhagwat squarely blamed ‘external forces’ for the Manipur violence.
Much as it matches the stand taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments at the Centre and in Manipur, it, nevertheless, comes off as a strident attempt at narrative correction by the top Hindutva leader – perhaps to garb the right-wing outfit’s own powerlessness in the Northeast.
Soon after the ongoing violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, the narrative in both local and national media was set. It broke out during a tribal solidarity march carried out in all hill districts of the state against the Manipur high court’s order to the state government that it should recommend the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list.
In quick succession, we saw the line shifting to ‘narco-terrorism’, allegedly by “illegal” Kukis. It was particularly vented not just by the Meitei-faction of the BJP in the state but also the Sangh parivar across the country. Peddling of drugs within the state, and from outside the international border, has been a matter of concern not just in Manipur but in some other northeastern states too. However, in a state where the incumbent chief minister was once accused by a police officer in an affidavit in the high court for asking her to “go slow” on a drug kingpin (from the Kuki community), it was only a matter of time before that narrative lost steam.
Lo and behold, it did. None other than the chief minister, N. Biren Singh, began telling select local and national media outlets that ‘external forces’ infiltrating Manipur through the open border with strife-torn Myanmar piloted the violence that left hundreds dead and injured and displaced at least 70,000 people belonging to both Kuki and Meitei communities.
The same narrative was mouthed by Bhagwat at his annual Vijayadashami address to the cadres at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. The Hindutva ideologue said:
“Why, and by whom, was an attempt made to give a communal tinge to this mutual conflict between the Manipuri Meitei and Kuki communities, who were apprehensive about the future of their existence? Who has a vested interest in trying to drag and besmirch an organisation like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which has been engaged in serving everyone without any bias for years, into this unfortunate incident without any reason? Which foreign powers may be interested in taking advantage of such unrest and instability in Manipur, located between Nagabhoomi and Mizoram in this border area? Does the geopolitics of Southeast Asia also have a role in these events?”
His utterance came across as an attempt to separate the RSS from the Manipur violence, perhaps because local rightwing outfits with alleged links to it – like the Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun – were widely alleged to have a hand in the attack on the Kukis in the valley areas.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here .
