In early May, the northeastern state of Manipur descended into ethnic violence, wedged in agony between warring Kuki and Meitei groups. What began as a protest against Scheduled Tribe status for the latter morphed into bloodshed, spurts of which have been reported on and off since. It took a viral video of women paraded naked by a mob to jolt the country’s establishment into an overdue recognition: Not only does the state need urgent intervention, we would fail the most basic of our national promises if we do not put a definitive end to all forms of mass violence, the brunt of which is mostly borne by women. In the incident that has evoked outrage across India, traced by local authorities to 4 May, the younger of the two Kuki victims who were forced to walk naked into a field was assaulted sexually; her father and brother had been killed shortly earlier; and by her account, as reported, it was the police that had turned them over to the Meitei mob. The country has had a tragic history of strip-parade humiliation heaped upon women. A Dalit woman in Maharashtra’s Satara district 11 years ago suffered this and a thrashing because her son had eloped with a high-caste girl. In 2015, the rights of five Dalit women were similarly violated in Hareva village of Uttar Pradesh. But the Manipur case stands out for making our skin crawl in even more ways.
Last reported, a sole arrest had been made in the case, long after a police report was filed that does not appear to acknowledge any role played by the cops themselves. Given the interest that law enforcers apparently have in twisting the true sequence of events, it is vital that a neutral probe establishes what actually happened for the law to apply and guilt be assigned. While the inter-group animosity that framed the context of the attack is undeniable, we also had an added aggravator in the shape of social media. Some reports suggest that before the state’s internet snap-off, fury had been stoked among locals by a fake clip of a woman’s lifeless body portrayed falsely online as a Meitei victim of Kuki perpetrators. In an already toxic cauldron of ethnic hostilities, this incited the rage of revenge against ‘the other’. Although a fact-check of the picture could have shown that the deceased was a Delhi resident who died last year, nobody was paying attention. What unfolded was horrific in itself, but the whole episode shows just how dangerous falsehoods can be if weaponized.
At least the Manipur crisis has rattled the country’s conscience in a way we had not seen before. Social media is full of condemnation and sympathy. Marking his first public words on recent events in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the atrocity shameful and said none of the guilty would be spared, the law would apply, and what happened was unpardonable. Taking suo moto notice of the outrage, the Supreme Court directed the Centre and state government to act right away, adding that it would take action if they failed to. What should haunt us, however, is that it has been more than two-and-a-half months since the incident and almost as long since a police report was lodged. If this case has suffered the added trauma of painfully evident neglect, so has Manipur on the whole. We have been served a rude reminder of just how dark life can get when the rule of law goes missing, leaving the most vulnerable to be preyed upon. Such breakdowns must end once and for all. Justice cannot go unserved.