Crimes, Punishment and Political Charades: Lessons for the Nation From Manipur

Manipur is a microcosm of the country in showing how majoritarian politics can tear the fabric of a state asunder.

When you play one Manipuri citizen against another by whipping up sectarian sentiments, hoping to consolidate one vote bank to the exclusion of another, this is what you get.

(Photo: Kamran Akhtar/The Quint)

Let's not miss the woods for the trees in this entire saga that is unfolding in Manipur. The state administration doesn’t wake up to a heinous crime until a video of women being disrobed and molested goes viral on social media. What does it say about governance and administration? Are we saying that till the time cameras expose a crime, law enforcement is allowed to remain in a slumber?

As it now turns out, from the highest offices down to the local level, everyone was aware of the Kangpokpi incident in Manipur where two women were publicly violated on 4 May this year.

The shame here is that such incidents had become so much of a part of this ugly fratricidal war that it was treated as another ghastly episode in a series of such cases in a raging revenge war between the two ethnicities of Manipur – the hill tribes versus the valley people.

A crime against humanity of this proportion goes unpunished, everyone goes around doing business as usual until someone decides to post the video and awaken the public. There are two or three theories of why the video did not leak earlier.

Social Media Video: Not an Isolated Case of Violence

The internet shutdown is one of the theories since the perpetrators enjoyed the tacit support of the ruling dispensation. But the most important lesson here is that truth has a way of revealing itself, separated from lies and deception in the most inopportune moment. And I am glad that the social media machinery has ensured that the truth is not buried. So, here are the three things that this episode tells us.

One, there is no hope for the common people to get justice or even a semblance of dignified existence when those in power have their hands in gloves with the criminals.

I shudder to think how many such instances were buried because the perpetrators were aligned with the ruling side. It's lost on no one right now that the Kangpokpi incident is not an isolated one.

There are many more equally or more disturbing instances of barbarity of killing and maiming and brutal rape. Every couple of weeks, newspaper headlines come up saying, 'Violence Erupts in Manipur Again'.

The reality is that the violence never stopped, our attention may have shifted. And now, as if on cue, the district administration and state government are shaken out of their stupor and immediate action is taken, the culprits are booked with alacrity.

How the System Shields the Crime and the Culprits

Suddenly the administration has gotten its act together, the moment there was a public outrage and national outcry.

With the entire state resources along with paramilitary forces at his disposal, will anyone believe that the N Biren Singh-led government was helpless to nab the criminals after the incident was reported?

When asked about the delay, the chief minister said that there are thousands of such FIRs and that they don’t know where to start. That’s a blatant lie.

Is it not evident from the video that the culprits were given a free run? Look at their body language. Is there any fear of law, and why will any such fear surface when they know that they have the active support of the highest office and that the CM's office is one of them? Who will they be afraid of?

The other argument presented was that the community shields the culprits, so there is no way to identify them. Hence, it was only after the outing of the video that taking any action was possible.

So now, does Manipur's law and order have to remain subject to how actively social media reports crime? For the prime minister of the country to now shed crocodile tears and create this impression of taking action is a ridiculous charade to redeem himself from deliberate inaction.

Slow or No Redressal Plagues the Process of Reporting Crimes

Secondly, when it comes to any issue of crime against women, look at the trajectory – from the reporting of the crime to the fate that it meets.

There is no redressal anywhere. The victim or someone representing her may have mustered the courage to report to the police (which itself is a tall order in rape cases based on the associated stigma). Having got no reprieve, one approaches the women's commission and there too, practically no one gives her a hearing. The file simply moves from one office to another and it remains caught in the quagmire.

In this case, an FIR was filed but the police simply sat on it with no intent to act for the reasons cited above. Manipuri women's rights groups wrote to the National Commission for Women (NCW) but the chairperson said that she wrote to the state chief secretary and there was no response.

Where is the redressal mechanism for sexual crimes against women? Why are we even sustaining these women's rights commissions on taxpayers' money when they remain impotent, practically being of no use to the women of this country whom they claim to serve?

I would really like to see what is their modus operandi that prevents them from taking action or is it just about shooting off a letter to another state-level authority and considering your job done?

These commissions have once again exposed themselves as stooges of the ruling dispensation, with no power or influence of their own. Except for draining the state exchequer, they serve no purpose at all. I would say, simply disband them all and save the state's expenses.

Last but not the least. Manipur is a microcosm of the country at large in displaying how majoritarian politics can tear the fabric of a state asunder.

If you thought the men who were seen gleefully molesting a woman of the rival community as an act of revenge were inhuman brutes, I would say that those political leaders who created these brutes are the bigger monsters.

When you play one Manipuri citizen against another by whipping up sectarian sentiments, hoping to consolidate one vote bank to the exclusion of another, this is what you get.

It's the same brand of politics that the ruling party is playing at the national level. Consolidate one community, isolate the rest, and retain power. Let Manipur be a mirror of what that can lead to.

(Afrida Rahman Ali is a`n independent freelance journalist and has been a broadcast journalist for the last 20 years having worked with mainstream news networks like India Today, News X, and Times network. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)