Manipur's Peace Committee An Exercise In Futility As Violence Continues

Last week, the Union Home Ministry finally notified the much-awaited peace committee for Manipur on June 10, more than a month after the state's ongoing turmoil began. Even now, several weeks later, clashes and killings between the Meitei and Kuki communities continue, marking an abject failure of basic governance and raising serious question marks over the capabilities and intentions of both the Union and State governments. No country that aspires for global leadership can or should countenance an internal civil war-like situation - and the longer this continues, the harder it becomes to restore peace and trust between the two communities. This in turn creates grave risks in a sensitive and volatile border region, with fissures that India's adversaries can exploit to their advantage, posing a growing challenge to India's national security and damaging its diplomatic, political, and economic interests in the vital Southeast Asian region.

As such, along with proactive measures to restore law and order and curb violence, which has been glaringly inadequate so far, there is an urgent need to create a credible platform for dialogue between the Meitei and Kuki communities, with the aim of ensuring a durable peace based on social and economic justice. To this end, we at the Eta North East Women's Network, along with many like-minded women's organizations (Kuki, Meitei, and others), submitted a memorandum to the Union and State governments in late May. We had two key asks. First, the setting up of an 8-member non-political Peace Commission comprising solely of women - with equal representation from the Meitei and Kuki communities - along with women observers from other communities and the State and Central governments. We had also detailed the mandate of this proposed Peace Commission and its working modalities clearly - and specified that none of the members would be entitled to any allowances or payment for their honorary service. Our second demand was the setting up of a Judicial Commission to enquire into the violence and make sure that the perpetrators were identified and brought to justice. 

While a Judicial Inquiry Commission headed by Justice Ajai Lamba has now been set up and has just begun functioning, the peace committee announced by the Union Home Ministry is a complete non-starter. To begin with, it is stuffed with various politicians and controversial figures, some of whom are alleged to be complicit in the ongoing violence. That coupled with the fact that it includes the Chief Minister and members of his party and cabinet, who have displayed a complete lack of competence in handling the situation, completely robs the peace committee of any credibility in the eyes of most people. 

Many of those named as members of this committee have called out this travesty while also pointing out that their names were included in the notification without their consent indicating that this peace committee is stillborn. 

Additionally, the peace committee has a mammoth 51 members. Yes - you heard that right. Even the Manipur state legislative assembly has just 60 members. How is such a jumbo committee to meet and function in an effective way and how would it have time to meaningfully discuss issues or arrive at a consensus in a time-bound manner, even if the members were all credible figures? Think of the coordination and logistics challenges this entails. Apart from this, the number of Meitei members of the committee far exceeds the Kuki representation. And there is a glaring gender imbalance in the committee as well - which has very few women and is overwhelmingly male. This makes it very difficult for such a committee to have any traction.  

Apart from this, the Union Home Ministry's notification omits some very key details - such as the scope and mandate of the peace committee, the modalities for its meetings and discussions, the time limits for its deliberations and submissions, and what, if anything, would be done to action its recommendations. If the goals and functioning of the committee are unclear, and there are no specific timelines, how is this supposed to address the situation? 

The way the Union Home Ministry has gone about this indicates that either the mandarins in New Delhi are clueless about Manipur and the complex issues involved, or that this is a deliberate and cynical exercise that has been calculated to fail. Neither bodes well. If New Delhi is serious about placing India's national security over petty politics and resolving the imbroglio in Manipur quickly, it will need to go back to the drawing board - which means scrapping this farcical committee and creating a more credible platform that is balanced and workable. The memorandum we have already submitted provides an alternative - but there could be other ways as well - the one now being espoused by the Union Home Ministry and the state government just isn't the answer. 

(Sophia Rajakumari is an Imphal-based activist, advocate and Founder-Chairperson of Eta Northeast Foundation Trust.)