war on drugs in manipur essay 200 words

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‘War on Drugs’ Campaign- Means to End Drug Trafficking in Manipur?

Progress and development are slowly but steadily taking place in Manipur, focussing on physical connectivity, new infrastructural projects, promoting tourism, and building new educational institutions and other related parameters to facilitate a secure life and prosperous economy. This will further contribute to empowering the state and the people as a platform for India’s Act East Policy by connecting with Southeast Asian (SEA) nations and beyond. Nevertheless, this new light at the end of the tunnel gets perturbed due to the widespread prevalence of drug trafficking via the porous Indo-Myanmar Border (IMB) and the increase in the number of drug users in the state . Drug trafficking is not a new trend in the state; however, the unprecedented rise of poppy cultivation raises a red signal that adversely impacts the northeast regions (NER) and the rest of India.

Drug mafias or drug kingpins have developed a strong network with Manipur and Myanmar to smuggle poppy out to Golden Triangle and vice versa. To uproot such detrimental threats from the soil, the state government launched campaigns such as ‘Nisha Thadoklasi’ and ‘War on Drugs in 2018. Under this campaign, the Chief Minister of Manipur, Shri Nongthombam Biren, aimed to destroy illegal poppy cultivation in hill regions, curtailing its distribution and trade using coercive and non-coercive methods [i] . However, the recent confiscation of drugs, a total of 44.5 Kg of ‘World is Yours (WY) tablets, aka ‘party drugs’ worth Rs 9 crores and another few Kg of WY tablets of Rs 5 crores in May and August 2022, respectively in Tengnoupal district of Manipur, bordering Myanmar [ii] exemplified that it is an issue that needs serious actions. There is no estimate of those unrecorded confiscations. Given the complexity of the problem, will the ‘War on Drugs’ campaign be a solution to the problem in the state?

Tobacco products, Ganja (marijuana), Alcohol, Opium, Spasmo Proxivon ( SP), Methamphetamine (WY), Codeine cough syrup, Pseudo-Epherine etc., [iii] are some of the easily accessible drugs available in the state. Among all, opium, methamphetamine and heroin are illegally transported from Myanmar through Lashio, Mandalay and Bhamo to Manipur and Mizoram via Moreh and Champhai,   respectively [iv] . In Manipur, drug trafficking remains no longer a local trade; it has become a multi-national business involving drug mafias from countries such as China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal [v] . Similarly, other northeastern states bordering Myanmar have clandestine networks to carry out this illegal and notorious business. Figure 1 shows the diagrammatic illustration of the nucleus of drug trafficking in northeast India. From this point onwards, it further circulates the smuggled drugs to the rest of the country.

Figure 1: Nucleus of Drug Trafficking in Northeast India

Source: Pushpita Das (2018), “Security Challenges and the Management of the Indo-Myanmar Border”, Adapted by Author

Figure 2 illustrates drugs that affected NER, mainly those sharing borders with Myanmar.

Figure 2: Impact of Drugs in Northeastern States

Source: https://socialjustice.nic.in/writereaddata/UploadFile/Magnitude_Substance_Use_India_REPORT.pdf

The massive growth of illegal poppies in remote areas of Ukhrul, Senapati, Kangpokpi, Kamjong, Churachanpur and Tengnoupal districts of Manipur [Vi] , with massive investments by drug mafias has resulted in urea shortage in the state [Vii] . To control the same, the Manipur Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB) department reported that 963 drug traffickers, including 768 men and 195 women, were detained between April 27 and June 2019 under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act [Viii] . Law Enforcement agencies destroyed 1,420 acres of poppy plantation between 2020 and February 2021 [iX] . In the same year, Chief Minister N Biren Singh rewarded total cash of Rs 10 lakh to a village in Ukhrul district for voluntarily destroying poppy plants grown in the village [X] . Nevertheless, the problem persists. Hence, this coercive method does not seem effective in the long run until the government looks at the root causes of the problems and the reasons that push people to take the wrong path.

Socio-economically, the poppy cultivators belong to the most underprivileged section of society. They constantly struggle for basic amenities for their survival. Therefore, they are compelled to grow poppy because it is a profitable occupation, easy to grow along with other crops with the availability of cheap labour. Poppy cultivation is a ‘magic potion’ for them to get rid of their poverty [XI] , while the investment comes from drug kingpins [XII] .

Nevertheless, destroying poppies using a coercive method is not the right approach. This approach failed in countries like Afghanistan when the Taliban tried to ban opium in the country; the same happened in Thailand and Laos [XIII] . Instead, adopting alternative methods such as introducing development livelihood programmes for the cultivators to cultivate new crops such as ginger, cardamom, and lemongrass as substitute crops to replace poppy, facilitating proper rehabilitation, and a fair amount of compensation [XIV] [XV] without targeting them as ‘poppy victims’ will gradually reduce the production of opium in the state [XVI] . This alternate method has been a successful approach in the aforementioned three countries. It will have a’ balloon effect’ without offering any alternatives and compensation for their crops, wherein the farmers will shift the poppy cultivation to the remotest areas [XVII] . Similarly, the drug mafias and drug kingpins will find other ways to continue their business by building a new and more robust network with producers, smugglers and traders.

Reports have shown the increasing instances of alcoholism and drug addicts rising ‘ to cope with the frustration in life due to lack of opportunities, poverty, unemployment, broken family or sometimes for self-amusement or to accompany friends [xviii] . Drug addicts or abusers are mostly the state’s youth since these substances are readily available at low prices. Therefore, the government must pay proper attention by looking at the inadequacy of social institutions to curb and prevent the youth from indulging in this risky habit [xix] . The usage of opium is engrained in the customs and traditions of the Manipuri society since raw opium and ganja were used as medicine or painkiller during childbirth or for religious purposes in ancient times [xx] . In addition, alcohol too is used in various social functions though it has been banned since 1991. However, the recent legalisation of liquor sales in 2022 led to dissatisfaction and demand for the government to reconsider this decision. Therefore, abolishing alcohol and eradicating illegal drug smuggling will be an onerous task if the government focuses only on coercive methods. The nexus of politicians with drug mafias involved in drug trafficking must be checked with necessary actions to uproot it entirely from society.

The government must focus on the development of the people, enhance their skills, and provide them with jobs and other related necessities in their lives. Along with stringent laws for illegal drugs and their associated activities, all sections of the society, including the local population, civil society organisations, political class, student unions and Meira Paibi/Women Torch Bearers of Manipur, should come together and fight against this societal evil. In addition, the IMB needs to be checked since the source of the influx of illegal drugs in the state comes from this porous border. Revision of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) is required with the effective functioning of the Integrated Check Post (ICP) and Land Custom Station (LCS) at the border. Otherwise, a new Golden Triangle will be emerged in India’s northeast region, reigniting the dormant insurgency with drug-induced finances. Lastly, Manipur, a potential pivot for India’s Act East policy connecting India with SEA nations, will become an insurmountable security challenge if the problem of drug trafficking is not tackled seriously.

[i] ’Nisha Thadoklasi”, Manipur Govt Declares war on drugs’, mygov, 31 July 2019, https://blog.mygov.in/nisha-thadoklasi-manipur-govt-declares-war-on-drugs/

[ii] K Sarojkumar Sharma (2022), “Rs 5 crore party drugs Seized in Manipur’s Tengnoupal District, 1 Held”, The Times of India, August 28, 2022, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/imphal/rs-5-crore-party-drugs-seized-in-manipurs-tengnoupal-1-held/articleshow/93827388.cms

[iii] “Magnitude of Substance Use In India (2019)”, https://socialjustice.nic.in/writereaddata/UploadFile/Magnitude_Substance_Use_India_REPORT.pdf

[iv] Pushpita Das (2018), “Security Challenges and the Management of the Indo-Myanmar Border”, Startegic Analysis, 42, 6 (2018), Available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09700161.2018.1557932?needAccess=true

[v] “Drug Smuggling from/through Manipur”, E-Pao http://e-pao.net/epSubPageExtractor.asp?src=news_section.editorial.editorial_2021.Drug_smuggling_from_through_Manipur_TSE_20211122

[vi] Lily Sangpui and Jenny Kapngaihlian (2021), “ The Quest to End Illicit Poppy Cultivation in Manipur: Examining the War on Drugs Campaign”, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 56, Issue No. 32, 07 Aug, 2021, https://www.epw.in/engage/article/quest-end-illicit-poppy-cultivation-manipur

[vii] “Manipur: Congress Poll Observer Accuses Government of Diverting Urea Supply to Poppy Cultivation (2021)”, https://www.northeasttoday.in/2021/09/01/manipur-congress-poll-observer-accuses-government-of-diverting-urea-supply-to-poppy-cultivation/

[ix] “1420 Acres of Illicit Poppy Plantation Destroyed in 2020-2021, Sentinel, 11 January (2021) https://www.sentinelassam.com/north-east-india-news/manipur/manipur-1420-acres-of-illicit-poppy-plantation-destroyed-in-2020-2021-

[x] Prasanta Mazumdar (2021), “Maniour govt diverting urea for poppy plantations, claims Jairam Ramesh, The Indian Express, https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2021/aug/31/manipur-govt-diverting-urea-for-poppy-plantations-claims-jairam-ramesh-2352363.html

[xiii] David Mansfield and Adam Pain (2005), “Alternative Livelihoods: Substance or Slogan? Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, Briefing Paper Series

[xiv] Ngamjahao Kipgen (2019), “ Why Farmers in Manipur Cultivating Poppy?”, Economic and Political Weekly, https://www.epw.in/engage/article/why-are-farmers-manipur-cultivating-poppy

[xv] K Sarojkumar Sharma (2017), “Lemongrass to replace illegal poppy farming in Manipur”, The Times of India, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/imphal/lemongrass-to-replace-illegal-poppy-farming-in-manipur/articleshow/58237749.cms

[xvii]  Ibid

[xviii] Sanjenbam Jugeshor Singh (2022),”Menace of Alcoholism & Drug Abuse in Manipur”, The Frontier Manipur, April 23, 2022, https://thefrontiermanipur.com/menace-of-alcoholism-drug-abuse-in-manipur/

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Manipur's War on Drugs and the Government's Perception Problem

26 Dec, 2018    ·   5538

Anjali Gupta considers the Biren Singh's government's policy framework to deal with the complex challenges posed by the state's historic drug problem

Anjali Gupta

Manipur’s Chief Minister N Biren Singh announced a ' war on drugs ' soon after he assumed power in March 2017. Measures undertaken by the government so far include incarceration of drug peddlers and establishment of a fast-track court to try those accused. Further, the Indian Army and Assam Rifles have been approached to assist in the eradication of poppy cultivation. The government has been rehabilitating and encouraging poppy farmers to switch to alternative crops like lemon grass and avocado to replace poppy cultivation.

While Manipur has had a historic drug problem and several governments have attempted to battle its consequences, this commentary will look specifically at the three elements of the Biren Singh government's strategy - identified as supply-side, demand side, and crop replacement - adopted under the aegis of its so-called 'war on drugs'. It will argue that the current policy features some departures from the past, but until there is a change in perception in terms of how the drug issue itself is viewed by those making policy, no solution will be entirely appropriate.

Monitoring Supply

According to Abid Hussain, tribe secretary of the All Lilong Anti-Drug Association (ALADA),  while drugs like Spasmo Proxyvon and  Nitrosun 10 come from within the country, heroin and ‘World is Yours’ (WY) are brought in from Myanmar by peddlers in Manipur. Anti-narcotics officials have arrested 600 drug peddlers and destroyed 1,837 acres of poppy plantation over 36 places in Manipur in the past year. The sum total of poppy cultivated-area demolished could have produced opium valued at a total of INR 128 crore.

Under successive governments in Manipur, arrests under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (ND &PS) Act 1985 have only grown in the past two decades. The current government's decision to establish the long-demanded fast-track-court to facilitate speedy trial of offences relating to ND&PS is a positive development. Earlier there was a single fast-track court for both crimes against women and those related to ND&PS, which led to delays in judicial proceedings.

Whether eradication, interdiction or arrests, actions aimed at reducing supply-side motivations are focused on stopping the flow of drugs across or within the borders of the state. However, there is thus far no empirical evidence that proves if any of the supply-controlling measures has led to a reduction in the levels of opium cultivation . Since the price of opium cultivation is negligible compared to the high market price of refined drugs, refiners have had every incentive to offer a high enough price to farmers to revert to poppy cultivation.  

Diminishing Demand?

The implementation of the Scheme for Prevention for Alcoholism and Substance (Drugs) Abuse 2015, includes awareness generation, identification, counselling, treatment and rehabilitation of addicts. Theoretically, this was a good move because it expanded the scope of viewing illegal drug use from merely a criminal offence to also a health issue.

However, the implementation of this scheme has not brought about a change in reality. Rather, reports suggest an increase in the number of young addicts and injected drug users (IDUs) including women-related drug abuse cases in Manipur. There are around 22 rehabilitation centres in Manipur to treat drug addicts. Most of these are located in Imphal, which ignores the diffused spread of drug use across the state.  

The government has been advised to develop harm-reduction policies to replace the current zero-tolerance policy, and recognise the certainty that some addicts will continue to use drugs irrespective of the possibility of harsh penalties. A stronger community-based outreach programme would be a useful move in this regard, so the focus is not limited to curing addicts alone but also working towards community mobilisation against illegal drug use.

Crop Replacement Alternatives

Opium production is seen as a viable livelihood by farmers given the relative underdevelopment in Manipur. The Singh government's efforts to subsidise the supply of good quality seeds and providing expertise and financial support to farmers were taken by previous governments as well. However, continuing failures faced by the same set of steps suggest the existence of shortfalls through several governments.

Certain measures have been suggested to prevent past policy failures. These include provision of support to market the cultivated yield for better remunerative prices and preventing middleman exploitation, guaranteeing minimum support price for the yield, and finally, encouraging non-agricultural income generating activities in illicit cultivation areas to diversify sources of farmer income.

The Singh government has not yet taken up these recommendations in the present policy framework. In other words, Singh's initiative shifts focus from one crop to another while not taking into account proposals for more holistic measures forwarded by civil society groups. A lack of incentivisation to farmers equals a lack of movement from illicit crops to licit ones, which will ultimately only hinder Singh's 'war on drugs'.

Illegal drug abuse in Manipur is no longer just a health problem - it has evolved into a complex socio-political challenge. The Biren Singh government's initiative has made some policy departures from the past, but not enough to bring about tangible change. Under the present policy, seizures and arrests have become more harsh and rapid, a separate fast track court has been established, and lemon grass has been proposed as an alternative to rehabilitate poppy growers. However, the fixation with harsh criminalisation and abstinence-based rehabilitation remains. The importance of how a problem is viewed, thus, is as critical as finding an appropriate solution to the drug problem in Manipur.

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Why Manipur’s civil war is being linked to the narcotics trade

While it is difficult to ascribe the violence to one particular cause, biren singh’s ‘war on drugs’ had undoubtedly widened ethnic fault lines in the state..

The food at Punananda Singh’s eatery was delectable despite the difficulty he said he was having procuring fresh ingredients. Outside the half-closed shutters of his chak or rice hotel, Imphal was still under a curfew. It had been four weeks since ethnic clashes had erupted in Manipur between the Meitei and Kuki communities. The violence had spiralled into a civil war.

“Do you see how hot it is these days in Imphal?” Punananda asked.

Imphal was indeed hot – tension hung oppressively in the air.

But Punananda clarified – he was talking about the weather.

“It is all because of what the Kukis are doing,” he said, an unexpected remark considering we were making small talk.

He went on to explain, “In the hills, they are cutting down all the forests and planting poppy. And because our chief minister asked them not to, they are raising hell now.”

Over the next week that I spent in Imphal, I would hear Punananda’s thesis of the “root cause” of the violence echoed by every second person I met in the Meitei-dominated city, which lies in a valley surrounded by Kuki-dominated hills.

“What is happening is simple,” said Kuhraijam Athouba, spokesperson of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity, an umbrella group of six groups representing Meitei interests. “It is a classic case of narco-terrorism.”

A war on drugs

The theory has wide currency among Meitei academics and civil society groups as well as officials from the community in the security and civil machinery.

They believe the violence is the culmination of a long-drawn conspiracy by Kuki groups, both overground and underground, to thwart Chief Minister N Biren Singh and his “war on drugs” – a much-publicised crackdown by the Manipur government on narcotics, and in particular, the cultivation of poppy in the state.

The poppy plant produces opium, a narcotic substance that can be further processed to produce synthetic drugs such as heroin.

Since 2017, the state government has destroyed nearly 15,500 acres of poppy fields. Nearly 85% of the area, according to official data, lay in Kuki-dominated districts.

According to proponents of the theory, this has had an impact on the financing of the Kuki militant groups who rely on “narco-money” for their operations.

They were waiting to strike back, and a high court order “gave them an opportunity,” alleged a member of the All Manipur United Clubs’ Organisation , a powerful valley-based civil society group.

The person was referring to the April 19 order of the Manipur High Court directing the state government to consider granting the Meitei community Scheduled Tribe status. Tribal groups, including the Kukis, held a massive protest against the order hours before the clashes broke out on May 3.

Targeting a community

While it is difficult to ascribe violence of this nature to one particular cause, Biren Singh’s “war on drugs” had undoubtedly widened ethnic fault lines in the state. It was at the heart of escalating tensions between the Kukis and the state government that had been simmering for months before the violence exploded.

Many Kukis saw the drive as having “selectively targeting” the community. The crackdown became particularly contentious when the government threatened to “ derecognise ” villages found guilty of harbouring poppy plantations. With distrust already running high, Kukis groups saw it as a ploy to “steal ancestral lands” of the community.

What made matters even murkier was that the Chief Minister linked the cultivation of poppy with other lightning rod issues in the state: “ illegal migration” and “encroachment” on forest land.

In an interview in March, he spelled it out in as many words: “These people [the Kukis] are encroaching everywhere, whether reserved forests, protected forests, doing poppy plantations and drugs business.”

A new twist to an old crisis

Regardless of the politics around Biren’s crackdown, there is a consensus among people from all communities that Manipur’s drug problem is real: its location has made it a convenient transit for narcotics from the Golden Triangle – a notorious area at the tri-junction of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia that has traditionally been home to a thriving narcotics industry. Through the eighties and nineties, Manipur was ravaged by a heroin-fuelled HIV problem.

The last two decades have seen a new dimension being added to Manipur’s drug troubles: the proliferation of poppy fields in Manipur’s hill areas, bordering Myanmar.

“Earlier there was no pervasiveness of poppy and opium here, but now they are everywhere,” said Homen Thangjam, an Imphal-based political economist who has carried out field-based research into the Indo-Myanmar narcotics trade.

The reason for this, Thangjam said, is the shifting of a large chunk of the heroin trade from the Golden Triangle to Myanmar in the last two decades.

Even as Thailand and Laos took steps to move away from the narcotics economy, the Myanmar government and its Army allowed the various armed ethnic militias of the country to indulge in drug trafficking in order to buy peace with them.

Many of Myanmar’s armed groups share close ties with militant groups from across the border in India owing to ethnic ties.

“From the 1990s, the Junta [the Myanamese Army] changed its policy regarding the ethnic insurgencies in their country, in the process becoming more flexible about narcotics,” said Homen Thangjam, who was a field investigator for a recent Indian Council of Social Science research on the narcotics trade in the Indo-Myanmar region. “Since the 2010s, they started allowing it even more emphatically .”

This had a spillover effect in the hills of Manipur, said Thangjam.

A poppy boom

Local conditions also contributed to the proliferation, said Thangjam. “Jhum became unsustainable,” he said, referring to the shifting agriculture method many tribal communities practise in the hilly areas of the North East.

Against that backdrop, the hills of Manipur with its conducive climate and proximity to Myanmar became fertile ground to grow poppy – a highly profitable crop. Calculations done by Thangjam and his team, based on interviews with people involved in its cultivation, show the return on investment can be as high as five times.

The boom in poppy cultivation in Manipur’s southern hills that border Myanmar’s Chin state can be seen in satellite imagery, the police said. “Earlier there were pineapples, now it’s poppy, ” said K Meghachandra, Manipur police’s superintendent of narcotics and border affairs.

In January, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released a report on Myanmar’s opium trade, showing a “very high” density of poppy fields on the northern tip of the country’s Chin state which borders Manipur.

A community-specific problem?

Poppy plants may be thriving in Manipur’s hill districts but the opium trade also involved “Meiteis, Muslims, Nepalis” from the valley, Meghachandra said. “They go buy it from the hills and are involved in inter-state transport,” he said.

Opium from Manipur is typically sent to Guwahati in neighbouring Assam from where “agents” smuggled it all over India, said the police official.

Data supplied by the Manipur police showed that 2,518 people have been arrested in drug-related cases since 2017. Of them, the highest – 1,083 – are Pangals, a valley-based ethnic group that follows Islam. The Kukis come next, with 873 arrests. The Meities are a distant third, with 381 arrests.

Yet, in the valley, Kukis continue to be blamed for the cultivation of poppy.

Thangjam said a peculiar form of land holding system among the community that entrusted ownership entirely to the chief of a village made it easier for poppy plantations to thrive in Kuki villages.

“In Naga areas, it is a more complex bargain where more hands are involved,” Thangjam said. That is why, he said, there were fewer plantations in the Naga areas of the state, although the first poppy field of Manipur had sprung up in a Naga village in the 1980s.

But the Kukis insist that associating only one community with the poppy plantations in Manipur is unfair. “Poppy cultivation is rampant all over Manipur, and all communities including Meiteis and Nagas are equally culpable as cultivators,” said two outfits from the community in a dossier they released in the wake of the clashes to address the allegation.

A report by the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute and released in December 2021, stated that poppy plantations in Manipur were the “highest in Saikul, Ukhrul and Chandel”. While Saikul is home mainly to the Kukis, Ukhrul and Chandel are Naga-dominated districts.

Still, in the Kuki-dominated hills of Churachandpur, community and church leaders admitted there was a problem.

Soumenthang Doungel, the chairman of the monitoring cell of the Kuki Impi, the community’s apex body, said the organisation had been actively dissuading people from growing the crop but many continued to do so “because of poverty”. “If they have to stop, the government has to help them, but that is not happening,” he said.

Lunshot, a pastor in a church in the town, said “all churches have opposed poppy plantations”. “But we are talking about all drugs and alcohol and not over-focussing against only poppy like the government,” he said. “Biren Singh has declared war against drugs but, on the other hand, he is legitimising their [Meiteis] wine.”

In 2022, the Manipur government revised its liquor policy to partially lift prohibition from the state.

Narco-money and militias

The state rhetoric around its “war on drugs” has dovetailed with another contentious subject: the allegation that Kuki militant groups are harbouring “illegal” Kuki migrants from Myanmar, who are helping the local population grow poppy and extract opium.

“Extracting opioids from poppy is a highly skilled activity,” said Meghachandra, adding that people from Myanmar already well-versed in it were part of drug operations in Manipur. “The local people learned the art from them,” he alleged.

Meitei groups allege that this is part of an organised racket to raise “narco-money to fund the movement” of cross-border Kuki armed militias. “Hence when the crackdown began, there was so much resentment,” said a Meitei government official.

Kuki groups are dismissive of this thesis. They point out that several of the Kuki militant groups which are signatories to the Suspension of Operations, or SoO, pact with the Central government have issued public statements discouraging the plantation of poppy.

In January, the Kuki National Organisation, an umbrella group of 17 armed groups, issued a “stern warning” to those engaged in poppy cultivation. “Failure to comply will necessarily incur severe consequences,” the group said in a statement signed by its president PS Haokip.

Haokip’s statement added that the Kuki National Organisation had “categorically banned poppy cultivation” since 2016 but “some individuals encouraged by non-SoO groups” have continued to do so.

In an article in 2019, Lunsieh Kipgen, who is currently the inspector general of prisons in the state, had written about “certain hill-based non-SoO armed groups….expressing not only their open support for poppy cultivation but also threatening to confront anybody or groups that try to obstruct poppy cultivation”.

However, Kipgen, a Kuki himself, went on to add that “there are also credible inputs that some armed groups irrespective of SoO and non-SoO groups sponsoring poppy plantations to fund their organisational requirements”.

“This way a crude form of narco-terror funding system seems to have crept into the land,” he wrote.

A well-intentioned move gone wrong?

Kipgen was not available for comment. But there seemed to be a wide-ranging consensus among officials in Manipur’s security establishment that poppy was a potent funding source for militants of all shades. “In that sense, the war on drugs was a very good step,” said a senior Kuki security official. “But the way it was executed, maybe not.”

Even those close to Biren Singh conceded that the drive, though well-intentioned, was marred by the Chief Minister’s often-hostile rhetoric around it, making it come across as targeting the Kukis.

“It should have been subtle and Biren should have kept his mouth shut,” said an Imphal-based Meitei academic.

A close aide of the chief minister, however, justified his belligerent approach. “We have lost a whole generation to drugs so one can’t blame him for going hard,” the person said. Even so, he added, “Maybe some tact would have been good in hindsight.”

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Manipur govt intensifies ‘war on drugs’ to root out drug menace

Imphal : The Manipur government has intensified the war against drugs in the state with more forces joining the campaign in rooting out the drug menace in the state.

On Thursday, Chief Minister N Biren Singh chaired a meeting with Assam Riffles, NIA, NCB, NAB, police, and Home Department to discuss issues and strategies to combat drug menace at the CM’s secretariat in Imphal. 

“We are joining forces to strengthen the ‘war on drugs’ campaign and leaving no stone unturned to root out this menace from the state. I urge the people of the state to cooperate and further extend support to the campaign with utmost seriousness and commitment. We must protect our youths from drugs and leave a better future for the coming generations,” CM Biren Singh posted on Facebook.

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Manipur: Over 30 communities come together to support govt’s “war on drugs”

Manipur cm n biren singh said he was moved by the overwhelming public response to his appeal for support, adding that the convention was a historic event which would be remembered forever..

Extending its support to the Manipur government’s “War on Drugs”, 33 communities in the state on Thursday took a pledge to work together to destroy all illegal poppy plantations and curb the flourishing drug trade.

Chief Minister N Biren Singh led the leaders and representatives of these communities in taking the pledge at an event in Imphal’s Bhagyachandra Open Air Theatre titled ‘All Communities Convention for a Pledge Against Illegal Poppy Plantation’.

The event was organised by Meitei Leepun (a civil organisation), in association with the apex bodies of 33 communities under the supervision of the chief minister.

The convention was put together after locals, across communities, responded to the CM’s call to join the ongoing campaign against narcotics trade and poppy cultivation.

The pledge was administered by Reverend Zuankanmang Daimei, pastor of Manipur Baptist Convention (MBC). It said, “Onwards from this day, the 25th of February 2021, in the presence of Almighty God and our beloved and visionary leader Shri N. Biren Singh, our Hon’ble Chief Minister, we solemnly pledge that we will support and contribute our best efforts to transform the ‘War on Drugs’ into a people’s war. We further pledge we shall work for completely eradicating illegal poppy cultivation and other illicit drug businesses in any areas of our jurisdiction by any person from within or outside.”

The CM said he was moved by the overwhelming public response to his appeal for support, adding that the convention was a historic event that would be remembered forever.

Assuring all poppy growers of an alternative to support their livelihoods, Singh said funds had been set aside in the Budget for this purpose and additional assistance would also be sought from the Centre.

Needy poppy growers would be identified in consultation with village chiefs and financial assistance would be provided through the deputy commissioners concerned, the CM added.

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In February, locals at Peh in Ukhrul district of Manipur showed the way by coming together to destroy poppy plantations in their village. In appreciation of the act, the CM announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh to the villagers, adding that Peh would be developed and promoted as a model village to encourage people elsewhere to join the state’s drug fight.

The BJP government launched the campaign in 2018 amid the swirling drug menace in the state. The state shares a 398-km international border with Myanmar, which often serves as an unfettered corridor for drug traffickers. Poppy is known to be cultivated widely in the hill districts, with as many as four heroine manufacturing units in the state’s upper reaches busted by security forces in 2019.

As per data available with Narcotic and Affairs of Border (NAB), the state’s anti-drug agency, the narcotics police, with help from other security forces, destroyed poppy plantations over 1,853 acres for the crop year September 2017 to March 2018. In crop year September 2018 to March 2019, a total of 2,240 acres were destroyed and the figure stood at 2,306 acres in crop year September 2019 to March 2020.

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Manipur’s BJP CM inflamed conflict: Assam Rifles report on India violence

It also points to the role of armed groups from the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities in the prolonged violence in northeastern India.

Kangpokpi/Imphal, India – On Christmas Eve, it was eerily calm inside a makeshift bunker with piles of gunny bags and a tin roof. Hunkered inside and clutching their single-barrelled rifles, 19-year-old Chonminlal Kipgen and 26-year-old Paolal Kipgen from the predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo community looked out and scoured the hills of Kangpokpi district for armed fighters from the rival Meitei community.

They said they were village volunteers – civilians who had taken up arms to defend their homes.

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Not so far away in Manipur’s capital, Imphal, the majority-Meitei community had similarly muted celebrations during their most cherished festival, Ningol Chakouba, in early November.

For the past 11 months, the two communities in India’s northeastern state of Manipur have been locked in what is arguably the country’s longest-running ethnic conflict in the 21st century under the watch of a federal government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The conflict has killed 219 people, injured 1,100 and displaced 60,000. It has revived an array of armed groups, sweeping up men and boys as recruits from both communities. On Saturday, two Kuki-Zo “village volunteers” were killed and their bodies allegedly mutilated in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district. In their press release, tribal groups accused “central security forces, who aided Meitei militants” of being behind the killings.

The conflict is frequently oversimplified as a struggle between the Hindu Meitei and Christian Kuki-Zo communities, mirroring the religious polarisation seen in communal conflicts and assaults on religious minorities in various parts of India. While the Kuki-Zo communities are almost entirely Christian, the Meitei community predominantly follows a syncretic form of Hinduism and their own Indigenous faith system, called Sanamahism. A smaller number of Meitei people also follow Christianity and Islam.

But an assessment prepared by Assam Rifles officials in Manipur highlighted a different set of factors that are unique to the conflict in Manipur. The Assam Rifles is the federal government’s paramilitary force with a long and controversial history in the state. It is the oldest paramilitary force in the country and shoulders the responsibility of maintaining law and order in the northeast along with the army.

The Reporters’ Collective (TRC) reviewed the assessment, made in a PowerPoint presentation, late in 2023. The officers who showed the presentation wished to remain anonymous. They took me through the presentation, which was in sync with the views one of the officers shared with me while explaining the reasons behind the Manipur conflict.

The presentation put part of the blame on the state government, headed by Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a member of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and his “political authoritarianism and ambition”.

It is the first candid assessment from a federal government agency that has made it into the public domain.

It is significant because Modi this month, in the run-up to a general election, had asserted that the federal government’s timely intervention had led to a “marked improvement in the situation” in Manipur . This was one of the few times that the prime minister had spoken of the conflict. Meanwhile, the federal home affairs minister has placed his faith in the chief minister’s ability to bring peace, which so far has not provided a resolution. The state’s two seats in India’s lower house of parliament vote on April 19 and April 26, in the first two phases of the national elections.

The assessment by the Assam Rifles listed causes of the conflict as determined by officers in the thick of the violence.

It highlighted the impact of “illegal immigrants” from neighbouring Myanmar, the consequent demand for a national register of citizens to reduce migration and the demand for Kukiland.

Kukiland is a separate administrative unit that the political and armed Kuki leadership wants cleaved out of Manipur. The demand for Kukiland has been revived during the ethnic conflict.

Additionally, the presentation asserted that armed groups from the Meitei community are equipping people with weapons, and the Kuki community’s armed groups are backing “volunteers”.

All of this has intensified tensions and contradicted attempts by both communities’ leaders to present the conflict as common citizens volunteering for self-defence against the other community.

TRC could not independently verify if the views in the presentation are endorsed by the Assam Rifles as an organisation. Detailed questions were sent to the paramilitary force’s official spokesperson.

Initially, a spokesperson said the Assam Rifles would not be able to respond to something that was “hearsay”.

In a follow-up email, the Assam Rifles said it would “respectfully decline to engage in discussions regarding speculative or unverified matters. As a professional institution, we focus on our core duties and responsibilities, and we have no further comments on this issue at this time.” Later, it asked for a copy of the presentation.

The Assam Rifles did not respond to TRC’s follow-up emails asking if it held the views reflected in the presentation.

Queries to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Manipur chief minister’s office remain unanswered.

Hours after this investigation was originally published, Assam Rifles issued a statement saying that the “contents of this article may not be construed as the organisational viewpoint of Assam Rifles.” The statement claimed that “no such presentation has been made by Assam Rifles”. Al Jazeera has independently confirmed that the presentation was made, and has reviewed it.

The chief minister’s role

The immediate trigger for the violence was a demand by the dominant Meitei community for Scheduled Tribe status, a form of affirmative action granting quotas of government jobs and college admissions. It was opposed by other tribal groups, including those from the Kuki-Zo community.

But in the presentation, Assam Rifles officials pointed to policies of the chief minister that they believed fed the animosity between the communities. It noted Singh’s “hard stance” on the “war on drugs” and “vocal social media dissent”, among other things, for inflaming the conflict.

The presentation accused Singh of creating divisions between communities in the state’s campaign to stop drugs from being manufactured, traded and sold in Manipur. His forceful drive against the cultivation of poppies, grown in hilly regions of the state bordering Myanmar, drove home the impression that he is targeting Kukis.

The presentation also cited “state forces’ tacit support” of the violence and the “dismemberment of law-and-order machinery”.

Another factor in the conflict, the presentation noted, is “Meitei Revivalism”. Revivalism refers to the long history of the Meitei community aspiring to revert to its identity before the advent of Hinduism in the 18th century and later the merger of Manipur into India in 1949. The campaign led to a revival of Sanamahism in the 1930s and fuelled the armed movements subsequently.

The presentation lists Meitei Leepun and Arambai Tenggol, two Meitei organisations, as among the factors that has fuelled the conflict.

Arambai Tenggol was formed in 2020 “under the aegis of the titular king of Manipur and BJP Member of Parliament Leishemba Sanajaoba”, a police officer told me.

The Tenggol was initially formed as a sociocultural organisation focused on the revival of Sanamahi culture and later took up arms. It earned a more vigilante-like reputation in April last year after it broke into the house of a Meitei Christian pastor who had allegedly insulted the Sanamahism faith.

The Arambai Tenggol is helmed by Tyson Ngangbam, who goes by the pseudonym “Korounganba Khuman”. (Korounganba is a common Meitei name that means “sunshine” while Khuman is the name of a clan.)

TRC sent questions to Ngangbam through his social media account, which he has used during the conflict. The report will be updated if he responds.

In January, in a show of strength, Arambai Tenggol summoned 37 members of Manipur’s Legislative Assembly and two members of parliament from the state, including RK Ranjan Singh, the federal minister of state for external affairs and education, for a meeting at Kangla Fort, the palace of the Meitei kings in the heart of Imphal. It included lawmakers from the Meitei community across party lines.

Ngangbam spelled out the group’s demands, including updating the National Register of Citizens, a process by which the Indian government hopes to identify and exclude undocumented migrants.

The group also demanded abrogation of the Suspension of Operation – a peace agreement – with the Kuki-Zo armed groups, the relocation of refugees from Myanmar to the neighbouring state of Mizoram, border fencing along the Indo-Myanmar border, the withdrawal of the Assam Rifles from Manipur and the delisting of “illegal migrants” from the Scheduled Tribes list – a move that would exclude Kuki-Zo people from Myanmar from accessing the Indian government’s affirmative action policies. The lawmakers committed to back the demands.

Meitei Leepun, which is also of recent origin, is perceived as influenced by the ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the fountainhead of a spectrum of hardline Hindu organisations, including the BJP. The leader of Meitei Leepun openly professes allegiance to the state’s chief minister and BJP leader Biren Singh, a Meitei.

Both Meitei Leepun and Arambai Tenggol face accusations from Kuki leaders of spearheading assaults by the Meitei community against their people. While Arambai Tenggol leans towards a stronger Meitei nationalist stance distinct from Hinduism, Meitei Leepun aligns with the Hindutva campaign led by the RSS and BJP.

A Meitei Leepun leader, Pramot Singh, told me: “We [the Meiteis] are followers of sanatana dharma. … If Meitei becomes extinct, the last outpost of sanatana dharma in Manipur is gone in the same manner Kashmiri Pandits are gone.”

Pramot Singh was referring to an upper-caste Brahmin group that lived in Kashmir but was forced to flee in the 1990s as they faced persecution and threats of violence by Kashmiri armed groups.

The Revivalists, in contrast, see Meiteis as distinct from the rest of India with their own cultural and religious identity and an erstwhile Manipuri kingdom called Kangleipak, which was merged by coercion into India in 1949.

The Assam Rifles presentation was silent on the political and business underpinnings of the conflict, the role of the federal government – under the BJP – and the Assam Rifles’ own failings and alleged bias.

According to the Assam Rifles presentation, the conflict is divided into three phases: “initiate”, “mutate” and “stalemate”. It laid out how the nature and character of the violence have changed through these stages.

My reporting over six months helped draw out details of what the paramilitary force’s presentation mentioned and what it left out.

The initiation

The embers of the current conflict – Biren Singh’s alleged political authoritarianism, hard stance on poppy cultivation, undocumented immigration, demand for Kukiland and Meitei Revivalism – have long smouldered.

But in April last year came the spark that ignited the simmering tension. This period was referred to by the Assam Rifles presentation as “initiate”.

That month, the Manipur High Court had asked the state government to consider petitions for including the Meitei community in the list of Scheduled Tribes – the constitutional provision that in the case of Manipur includes property ownership in the hilly areas dominated by Kukis. The Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act of 1960 doesn’t include all hill areas in its purview.

Heeding a call by the All Tribal Students’ Union Manipur, the leading tribal civil society organisation in Manipur, for a “solidarity march” in the hill districts where tribal communities dominate, rallies were held on May 3 in Senapati, Ukhrul, Kangpokpi, Tamenglong, Churachandpur, Chandel and Tengnoupal.

As the march was winding up in the town of Churachandpur, news spread that a tyre had been set on fire in front of the Anglo-Kuki Centenary Gate, which was built to commemorate the 1917-1919 Kuki uprising against the British.

Subsequently, a group of young people approached the gate wielding weapons. Soon, word spread, suggesting that “militants” were provoking the crowd, Outlook magazine reported. Within a couple of hours, rumours spread through the state that Kuki mobs were vandalising Meitei houses.

The Assam Rifles officers’ presentation said the period of conflict starting May 3 was characterised by “high intensity riots”, “selective targeting” and it was “orchestrated and led by militias”.

Mobs ran amok in the towns, particularly in Imphal, located in the valley with a predominantly Meitei population.

“On the night of May 3 at 8pm, people wearing black shirts attacked us. We fired blanks, which forced them to retreat but just for some time,” said 43-year-old L Ngampao Khongsai, who had been living in Imphal’s Khongsai Veng area, a predominantly Kuki-Zo area.

According to Khongsai, a Kuki-Zo, the mob continued to attack the neighbourhood despite pushback from the security forces. “They would be saying that Kuki should be killed and threw stones.”

Khongsai fled with his family and hid at a nearby school. Like thousands of others from the valley, he ran and made his way to the Kuki-Zo-dominated Churachandpur district.

In the hill areas and closer to the foothills, mobs attacked Meitei neighbourhoods. A pregnant Warepam Rameshwori was forced to flee her village. “Our village is at the foothills in Tronglaobi Maning Leikai [in Bishnupur district] surrounded by Kuki villages. On May 3, the firing started. … [The Kukis] had sophisticated weapons and started firing at us, and we didn’t have any weapons to defend, so we ran away from there and found shelter at a relative’s home,” she said.

Seventy-nine Kuki-Zo and 18 Meitei individuals lost their lives from May 3 to May 23, according to an Assam Rifles estimate. This period also recorded a wave of attacks and looting of arms from police stations. According to the Assam Rifle assessment, 5,668 weapons were looted.

“[The state government] allowed the looting of arms. I mean, it is obvious because it is impossible for people to just enter the police stations and take out arms,” a retired police officer familiar with the security and intelligence operations in the region told me.

“So the Meitei civilians and the rebel groups had gotten weapons and started maintaining vigilance in the town. … In response, the other side felt that the SoO [Suspension of Operations] arms people should get out and distribute weapons amongst the Kukis,” he said.

The Suspension of Operations is the peace agreement signed among Kuki-Zo armed groups, the federal government and the Manipur government. The SoO requires Kuki-Zo militias to stay in designated camps and all their weapons be kept in the camp’s central armoury under the supervision of the state.

“The divide was complete, and that was the stage in the beginning when the political leadership should have cracked down very, very heavily,” the officer said.

That did not happen. The conflict spread and mutated, the Assam Rifles presentation noted.

More than 8,000 reports

TRC tried to redraw the initial period of the conflict by analysing 8,169 first information reports (FIRs) – 5,818 were filed in May and 2,351 in June.

An FIR is the first complaint filed either by citizens or police, which the police then have to investigate to determine whether a crime has been committed.

On May 3, an FIR was filed recording the initial trigger of the violence between the two communities. According to the FIR filed by the authorities: “A huge [number] of Kuki and Meitei youths numbering about 1,500 clashed among each other and vandalised and burned down many houses of both communities at Torbung Bangla. In that, many houses numbering about 300 houses and some private vehicles were also burnt down by the rioters. The police personnel fire[d] some rounds of tear gas smoke bombs and other ammunition to disperse the mob.”

The looting of weapons was reported as starting on May 4 with the first registered incident being reported at Manipur Police Training College in Imphal. According to the FIR, “The large mob overpowered the sentry and broke the lock of arm kote room and looted a large number of arms and ammunitions [sic],” including automatic rifles – 157 INSAS rifles, 54 SLR rifles and AK-47 rifles, among others. The looting of weapons continued until May 31, as recorded in these 8,169 FIRs.

In the first two months of the conflict, 7,831 cases of vandalism and incidents in which residents were forced to flee were reported. In addition, 189 cases of killings, assaults – including sexual assault – bodily harm and missing persons, and 79 cases of mass looting of weapons were also recorded.

Multiple FIRs were nearly identical or similar. For instance, on May 10, 76 FIRs filed in the Sagolmang police station in Imphal East District included a similar complaint: “Some unknown persons holding arms and deadly weapons numbering about 1,000 suspected to be Kuki Community from different villages entered at [name of place] and damaged the properties as well as burnt the house.” The only differences in the reports were the place names and the lists of damaged items.

A similar trend was seen in the police complaints filed by the opposing Kuki-Zo side.

“If a village with 40 households was burnt, there would be 40 complaints,” a second police officer said on the condition of anonymity. According to him, the “identical” cases were all combined to help the inquiry being led by a special investigative team.

The second phase

According to the Assam Rifles presentation, the character of the conflict began to change at the end of May.

This is the time when federal Home Minister Amit Shah made a four-day trip to Manipur to stitch up a truce. By then, the federal government, in an unprecedented move, had appointed a federal officer in charge of all security and policing operations in the state, bringing the state police and the federal paramilitary and army under one command.

The federal government may dismiss a state government and take over control of the state’s functions if it believes “the constitutional machinery” has failed. The constitution also requires the federal government to protect a “state against external aggression and internal disturbance”.

But in this case, the federal government kept its faith in the state government and did not invoke either of these constitutional provisions.

Again unprecedented, the government sought to achieve a truce by drawing up an ethnic boundary, calling it a buffer zone, dividing the Kuki-Zo from Meitei-dominated areas and enforcing this boundary through its armed forces.

Shah’s visit and the strategy to impose a unified federal policing command and the buffer zone failed.

The violence abated in the main Kuki-Zo or Meitei-dominated towns, but it shifted to rural areas. These rural areas, stretching from the Imphal Valley to the Kuki-dominated hills, are made up of small hamlets, villages and townships where Meitei and Kuki people have traditionally lived next to each other.

Now, the villages of both communities came under attack from armed groups on both sides. A battle to forcibly create ethnic territories had kicked off.

This phase stretched from May 23 to June 15.

On a September night, when I visited the Meitei village of Singda Kadangband, located at the edge of the Meitei-dominated Imphal West district, its residents spoke about the sleepless nights they had spent for the six months of the conflict.

About 170 men from 165 households had been taking round-the-clock shifts to stand guard at 10 bunkers set up on the periphery of the village.

In early June, the villagers were approached by Meitei fighters. “They came forward to help us, but we didn’t allow them. We are afraid that later they will take advantage of us,” said N Bobi Singh, who had been organising the surveillance.

This is when the Assam Rifles presentation acknowledged groups of fighters from both communities got involved.

The state has a long and troubled history with more than 30 armed groups from different ethnic communities that call it home. They have fought for demands that range from separate nation-states to the creation of new states within India based on ethnic identities.

Many of them draw resources from and camp in Myanmar. The influence of the Meitei armed groups, which were particularly targeted by the government’s armed forces, had been waning since the 2000s. And a majority of the Kuki-Zo armed groups had signed the SoO agreement with the government.

Researchers noted reports of how the Indian armed forces, with the help of Kuki militias, have strategically isolated militia factions from other ethnicities. This allegation, coupled with a track record of human rights violations and unlawful killings, has significantly tarnished the Assam Rifles’ standing within the Meitei community. The paramilitary is perceived as biased whereas the state police have faced accusations of bias against Kuki communities.

This conflict gave the Kuki and the Meitei armed groups a new lease on life, besides leading to the emergence of new Meitei militias.

On the Kuki-Zo side, the groups bound by the ceasefire had begun from the initial stages to help civilians who had taken up arms.

“Some of the [cadres] of the Suspension of Operations groups helped us set up the bunkers because they have experience,” said 35-year-old Mimin Sithlou, the joint secretary of the defence committee under the Committee on Tribal Unity, a conglomerate of civil society organisations functioning largely in Kangpokpi district, who oversaw the management of the bunkers there.

The involvement of these cadres put the “VBIGs under pressure” to also join the conflict to fight on behalf of the Meitei community, the Assam Rifles document noted. VBIGs are valley-based insurgent groups, referring to the older Meitei-affiliated armed groups.

They began “providing arms and ammunition”, consolidating their base and “increasing recruitment and ideological support”, the presentation said.

As militias on either side of the divide began amping up recruitment and training of young people, particularly from rural areas, the conflict would sometimes ebb but then pick up again. The stalemate came into being.

The stalemate

In Haipi village, located about 15km (10 miles) from the trenches dug at the border of Kangpokpi district, Christmas passed without any celebrations for Janggoulun Kipgen’s family.

I first met 19-year-old Kipgen in one of the bunkers in September. “We were trained for five to six days back in our village,” he told me, holding a rifle.

On December 25, sitting inside her house in Haipi, Kipgen’s mother, Neinkhongah Kipgen, told me: “Who won’t fear to send their son to the front lines? We can only pray that he’s safe.”

Meitei civilians in villages like Singda Kadangband also face a similar dilemma. The nights seem endless, and the days are spent with unceasing uncertainty.

“Except for the 60+-year-olds, everyone is expected to do 24-hour shifts,” a villager who didn’t wish to be named, told me back in September. “I have a one-year-old baby and work as a welder. I feel scared, but we don’t have much choice.”

“This will have a long-lasting impact, particularly on the young and future generations. They have guns to defend their community, but that is not exactly how it will pan out. The person might use it to solve personal enmity. Then some unemployed people might start extortion. Then there can be cases of mistaken identity killing and then revenge killing. It is going to become a vicious cycle,” retired Lieutenant General Konsam Himalay Singh told me.

What Lieutenant General Singh said had begun to play out by December when I last reported from Manipur. Videos of gun-toting men in the valley and the hills had proliferated on social media. The armed “volunteers” were being valorised on social media while in personal spaces, many spoke of the worries of young men being lured or recruited by militias, spawning a never-ending cycle of attack, revenge and turf war.

This is despite more than 60,000 armed personnel of the federal government’s paramilitary forces, the army and the state police enforcing a buffer zone dividing a large part of the state into two ethnic territories that each community fears crossing.

On April 19, Manipur will vote — along with several other parts of the country — even as the conflict rages on between the two communities.

“The chief minister should have been thrown out. He is the head of state, and if he can’t be trusted, … the army and police should have gone on overdrive and taken control over the area, … but eventually, it was allowed to continue because when it simmers, your voting aggregate increases,” said the retired police officer familiar with the security and intelligence operations in the region.

The second part of this series looks at the role of the drug trade, politics and armed groups in keeping Manipur on a boil.

Angana Chakrabarti is an associate member of The Reporters’ Collective.

(With inputs from Harshitha Manwani, Mohan Rajagopal, Aryan Chaudhary and Vedant Kottapalle)

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Tech to Task Force: Manipur Takes Its 'War on Drugs 2.0' to New High, Rs 142-crore Contraband Seized in 70 Days

Curated By : Amitabh Sinha

Last Updated: June 20, 2022, 14:58 IST

The team at work. (News18)

In its new avatar, the ‘War on Drugs’ initiative has an Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF). The exercise comprises a multi-pronged strategy, which covers the legal, social, human resources and technological aspects to deal with the drug menace

With the porous Indo-Myanmar border exposing Manipur to the Golden Triangle of drug trade and mafias, the state has launched a ‘War on Drugs 2.0’, making it a part of the 100-day agenda of the CM Biren Singh-led new government. The Ministry of Home Affairs, too, has made fighting the drug menace in the state its top priority.

The organised drug mafia, with abundant resources, uses various ways and means to push narcotic substances such as heroin, opium, ganja and synthetic drugs such as crystal methamphetamine, pseudo-ephedrine, W.Y. Tablets etc. into the state and further to other parts of the country.

In its new avatar, the ‘War on Drugs’ initiative has an Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF).

The exercise comprises a multi-pronged strategy, which covers the legal, social, human resources and technological aspects to deal with the drug menace.

CHOKING THE SUPPLY ROUTES

The state government has started choking the transit routes by deploying a dedicated 24×7 Highway patrol of eight GPS-enabled vehicles in Senapati and Kangpokpi districts on NH-2 as a pilot project. A compressive state highway security plan for three major National Highways — NH-2, NH-102 & NH-37 — connecting Manipur to Myanmar, Assam and Nagaland is in the pipeline. Once the scheme is enforced, the drug peddlers will have no option, but to stop using Manipur as a transit route for drug trafficking, said experts.

In the past five years, drugs worth Rs 3,213 crore (value in the international market) have been seized and 1,674 cases have been filed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act leading to 2,104 arrests.

Further, the police have seized 170 kg heroin, 6,920 kg ganja, 1,265 kg opium, 520 kg brown sugar, 725 kg synthetic drugs, 16 lakh psychotropic tablets and 63,000 bottles of drug syrups. In addition, 13,894 acres of illicit poppy cultivated areas and 20 acres of cannabis (ganja) cultivated areas were destroyed.

WAR ON DRUGS 2.0;As we continue our rigorous drive against illicit drugs, the Tengnoupal Police team have arrested two individuals along with 55 soap cases of brown sugar & 3 plastic packets containing WY tablets. pic.twitter.com/KrN4FNUVcH — N.Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) March 29, 2022

After the formation of ANTF on March 20, the state has witnessed an increased crackdown on illicit drug peddlers, which has led to registration of 146 cases under the NDPS Act, 174 arrests and seizure of 18 kg heroin, 135 kg opium, 85 kg WY tablets, 44,000 capsules and 24,000 bottles of drug syrups along with destruction of 381 acres of illegal poppy cultivation.

Within 70 days, the Manipur Police have seized contraband valuing approximately Rs 142 crore in the international market.

EYE IN THE SKY

The Manipur Remote Sensing Applications Centre (MARSAC) has been tasked to generate high-resolution data to identify areas which have been subjected to illegal poppy cultivation in remote areas. The map obtained from MARSAC has been corroborated with the images obtained from drones. On the basis of this data, relevant provisions of the NDPS Act have been applied on landowners and village chiefs allegedly for poppy cultivation. The process will be a deterrent to any prospective illicit poppy cultivator, said experts.

STRENGHTHENING LEGAL MACHINERY

In a first, the ANTF organised a state-level seminar-cum-workshop on ‘War on Drugs 2.0’. It was inaugurated by CM N Biren Singh in the presence of chief secretary, DGP Manipur and other senior police officers.

This exercise was extended across the state by organising six workshops for 300 officers across 16 wings of District Police and Armed Police, so they can handle drug cases effectively.

War on drugs underway in full swing.In two separate cases, the Manipur Police have seized heroin powder weighing 2.995 g & brown sugar weighing 1.073 g from Kangpokpi and Jiribam dist respectively. We’re also working towards securing the international borders more effectively. pic.twitter.com/0xVQWN654Z — N.Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) June 12, 2022

The state has empowered officers of the Armed Police of Manipur (Manipur Rifles & Indian Reserve Battalions) under relevant sections of the NDPS Act on the lines of Central Armed Police Forces like Central Reserve Police Force and Border Security Force. It is likely to further intensify the crackdown on illicit trading of drugs as Manipur Armed Police personnel are deployed across the State of Manipur, including hilly and remote areas.

TASK FORCE IN ACTION

A seven-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by the IGP and ANTF, has been constituted to expedite the NDPS Act cases and for timely filing of charge sheets, besides ensuring higher convictions. The list of pending NDPS cases has been prepared and drug peddlers have been booked under Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (PIT NDPS) to ensure they don’t get bail. This provision under the PIT NDPS has been drafted on the lines of the National Security Act (NSA), stipulating one year of preventive detention without bail, extendable up to two years.

DRUG-FREE MANIPUR: YOGA DAY THEME

To garner support, public awareness programmes have been chalked out through more than 70 events in the hill districts. The inaugural event started with the final match of a prominent local football tournament featuring many national/ISL level players which was attended by DGP Manipur and IGP Zone in the presence of around 2,000 locals. In addition, the Manipur government has decided to keep ‘Drug-Free Manipur’ as the theme for International Yoga Day.

ALSO READ | This Manipur Youth Fought Drug Addiction, Built India’s First Transgender Football Team

Promotional strategies have been devised and a social media campaign has begun, with the launch of a dedicated Twitter handle ‘War on Drugs, Manipur’ & Facebook page, ‘War on Drugs, Manipur’. Daily achievements of the state are highlighted through it.

ALTERNATIVE LIVELIHOOD

The government is also focussed on providing alternate livelihood for those involved in drug trade. Steps are being taken to identify alternative means of livelihoods to wean away people from indulging in illicit cultivation of poppy in remote and hilly areas of Manipur due to lack of job opportunities.

The District Level NCORD Committee has been constituted for identification of target population, appropriate schemes and implementation of alternative livelihood and monitoring of the implementation. The proposed alternatives need to be based on local agro-climatic zones, traditional occupation and after weighing all pros and cons related to forest, agriculture, tribal development, horticulture, planning departments, etc. economic activities based on prevailing agro-climatic zone like horticulture, poultry, piggery, bee-keeping, floriculture, herbal plants etc., with emphasis on high value, low volume produce.

The state is striving to increase the market linkage to ensure right price for local products. Co-operative societies are being formulated to make these activities commercially viable.

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“Nisha Thadoklasi”, Manipur Govt declares war on drugs Reading Time : 7 minutes -->

Drug trade is considered as the third largest business in the world, next to petroleum and arms trade. It has been a backdoor business of almost every country, hindering the wholesome development of a nation and destroying precious lives of resourceful youths, with drug addiction and immense human distress.

The United Nations in 1987 adopted a resolution to observe International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26, ‘as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse’.Every year since then, June 26 is observed as International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. India, also observes this day every year under Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) as the nodal agency.

A survey report conducted by National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), called ‘Magnitude of Substance Use in India, 2019’, revealed that a considerable number of people use psychoactive substances in India, and that substance use exists in all the population groups of 10-75 years of age.

The survey was conducted between December 2017 and October 2018, to document the detailed information of drug (substance) use problem in the country.It was found that alcohol is the most common psychoactive substance used by Indians, with 14.6 percent and makes up about 16 crore people in the country. After alcohol, cannabis and opioids are the next commonly used substances.The report has also listed Manipur amongst the top 10 alcohol dependent states. In Manipur scenario, the lists of substance use range from tobacco products such as paan and cigarettes to ganja (marijuana) and alcohol, Opium, SpasmoProxivon (SP), Methamphetamine (WY), Codeine cough syrup, Pseudo-Epherine among others.

Manipur being close to Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia (Laos, Myanmar and Thailand) of drug trafficking has affected drug usage and a large number of HIV cases.The engraved customs and traditions of Manipuri society also is one of the factor that the number of drug use is hesitant to go down. Ganja or Cannabis and home-made brew have been used for religious purposes since time immemorial. Raw Opium or Kanni were also widely used as a medicine during child births to subside delivery pains in ancient times.

However, Manipur government is now keen to deal drug menace in the State. In 2018, November 3, Chief Minister Shri Nongthombam Biren Singh has declared ‘War on Drugs’. He is ardent that the State Government and the security forces would strictly look into drug users and stringent action to drug peddlers.

(Image source: E-pao.net)

Accordingly, a report of Manipur Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB) department reveals that 963 drug traffickers were arrested including 768 men and 195 women under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act from April 27 till June 2019. It also revealed that around 3,716 acres of illegal poppy plantation and 5.51 acres of ganja were destroyed as part of war on drugs. This when calculated in terms of money would have cost around Rs. 260 crore.The destruction drive is mostly conducted by joint teams of Manipur Police, Assam Rifles and Narcotics Department and at times various civil society organisations, student unions also take part in the drives.

In a major haul for the State, on June 29, 2019, NAB with police team busted a brown sugar factory at Lilong in Thoubal district, worth Rs. 100 crore in international market. For this the State Government had on July 16 honoured the team in a grand manner with Rs. 10 lakhs.

The State Government also launched ‘ Nisha Thadoklasi ’ campaign on June 26, 2018 at the observance of ‘International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking’. A total of 80 schools were identified for ‘Drug Free Campus’ for which teachers and students would be given training, to thwart drug abuse and trafficking in schools.The State Government presently is focused to create a concrete ‘Manipur State Drug Policy’, which would directly and indirectly curb drug menace in the State.

(Image source: NE Now)

Besides these, MeiraPaibis or local women torch bearers of every colony, also take the lead in controlling drug use in their own level. With their strong base and strict rules, it is able to control not only drug issues but other social issues on their own.There are also other civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working actively to promote a drug-free State. Organisations like Coalition Against Drugs and Alcohol (CADA), All Lilong Anti-Drug Association among others are some organisations working to uphold the same.

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Daily-current-affairs / 14 Nov 2023

Meitei-Kuki Conflict in Manipur: A Comprehensive Analysis of Socio-Political Roots and Pathways to Peace : Daily News Analysis

Date : 15/11/2023

Relevance: GS Paper 1 – Society

Keywords: Ethnic Tension, Union of India, Hill- Valley divide

The simmering ethnic tensions between the Meiteis and Kukis in Manipur have once again erupted into violence, bringing the decades-long conflict to the forefront. The genesis of the current episode is shrouded in ambiguity, with divergent narratives surrounding triggering incidents in both Kuki-majority Churachandpur and Meitei-dominated Imphal East District. As violence escalates, the socio-political intricacies of the conflict demand a comprehensive examination to understand the root causes and propose viable solutions.

Contestation over Ethnic Indigeneity:

After the conclusion of colonial rule, the former princely state of Manipur integrated into the Union of India in October 1949, subsequently transitioning into a Union Territory in 1956 and achieving full statehood in 1972. Within the state, three distinct ethnic groups coexist—the Meiteis, Nagas, and Kukis. The Meiteis, constituting the majority, primarily reside in the Imphal valley and its environs, while the Scheduled Tribes, comprised of Nagas and Kukis, inhabit the hilly regions.

Since the 1960s, Manipur has witnessed the emergence of various militant groups purporting to champion the diverse demands and grievances of their respective ethnic communities. Notably, the Kukis and Nagas have been engaged in a struggle advocating for a separate homeland, a pursuit that directly clashes with the Meiteis' commitment to safeguarding the territorial integrity of the state. The extensive border shared with Myanmar, characterized by ungoverned territory, coupled with the interconnected relationships among militant groups spanning the border, heightens the security challenges faced by Manipur. In light of these circumstances, the subsequent paragraphs delineate the key issues that have given rise to and sustained ethnic conflicts in Manipur.

Territorial Integrity vs. Demands for a Separate Homeland:

Contestation over indigeneity and territorial integrity:.

• Decades-long clash between Meiteis and Kukis/Nagas over Manipur's territorial integrity.
• NSCN-IM-led militancy advocates Nagalim-Greater Nagaland, causing clashes in 2001.
• Bangkok Agreement (June 2001) for Naga-inhabited areas' ceasefire not accepted by Meitei groups.
• Kukis' demand for Kukiland-Zale’n-gam raises concerns for Meiteis.

Meiteis as Custodians and Statehood Concerns:

• Meiteis perceive themselves as custodians of Manipur.
• G. K. Pillai argues against conferring statehood to Nagaland before Manipur.
• Concerns about legitimizing Meitei militant groups in the name of protecting territorial integrity.

Divergent Kuki Demands:

• Kuki organizations diverge on separate homeland versus administrative arrangements.
• KIM and ITLF advocate for a separate state or Union Territory.
• Zomi Council and SoO groups demand autonomy, showcasing varied perspectives.

Uneven Distribution of Resources:

Violent clashes triggered by high court's order:.

• May 3 clashes attributed to High Court's directive for Manipur to submit ST status recommendations for Meiteis.
• Meiteis seek legal recognition for ownership of land, currently controlled by Nagas and Kukis.
• Fear among Nagas and Kukis that granting ST status to Meiteis would lead to a land monopoly and reinforce political and economic dominance.

Demographic Disparities:

• Meiteis, comprising over 50% of Manipur's population, categorized as unreserved or OBC.
• Kukis and Nagas (mostly Christians) are STs, constituting around 40% of the population.
• Meiteis occupy only 10% of Manipur's total land, while Nagas and Kukis reside in the remaining 90%, fostering narratives of marginalization.

Land Ownership Restrictions:

• Legal restrictions prevent Meiteis from buying land in Kuki- and Naga-inhabited areas.
• Grievances since Manipur's 1949 union with India focus on Meiteis' lack of rights to protect customs, land, beliefs, and livelihoods.

ST Status Demand by Meiteis:

• STDCM, representing Meiteis, advocates for ST status since 2012.
• Government of India requested Manipur's recommendation in May 2013; no response by the time of this brief.
• Union government sought a recommendation again on May 31, 2022.

Legal Proceedings:

• Mutum Churamani, a Meitei, petitions High Court for state government response.
• High Court issues order on April 4, 2023, directing the state government to respond within four weeks.
• Government response overshadowed by clashes following the order.

Hill-Valley Divide: Uneven Development and Asymmetric Political Representation:

Hill-valley divide and st status demand:.

• Meiteis' demand for ST status intensifies Hill-Valley divide in Manipur.
• Historical factors, including asymmetric development and political representation, contribute to the divide.
• Economic and political focus on the valley leaves Kukis and Nagas without benefits.

Valley-Centric Development:

• Infrastructure development in Manipur predominantly favors the Imphal valley.
• Budget allocations highlight the stark imbalance: INR 21,481 crores for the valley, only INR 419 crores for the hills (2017-2020).

Political Underrepresentation of Hills:

• Hill populations, including Nagas, Kukis, and other tribes (~40% of the population), have 19 seats in the legislative assembly.
• Meiteis, constituting 50% of the population, hold 60 seats.
• Disproportionate representation leaves Kukis and Nagas reliant on Meitei-controlled assembly, regardless of party affiliation.

Dependency and Meitei Assertion:

• Kukis argue that laws and policies, instruments of Meitei assertion into tribal areas, hinder conflict resolution.
• Ongoing conflict seen as unsolvable under the current arrangement due to Meitei dominance.

Scholarly Perspectives on Uneven Development:

• Scholars note uneven development in Manipur linked to marginalization.
• Marginalization not solely due to limited political representation but also tied to locality, ethnic status, and history, as reflected in Kuki literature.

Governance Deficit and Demands for Autonomy:

Governance deficit:las.

• Insurgency movements create parallel governance due to perceived deficiencies.
• Faulty decentralization in Manipur hinders justice for hill districts.

Decentralization Challenges:

• Hill Areas Committee (HAC) and Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) lack effective powers.
• ADCs operate with limited authority, depending on the state government.

Conflicts within Tribal Groups:

• Nagas oppose Sixth Schedule extension, viewing it as an obstacle to their homeland goal.

Legislation Issues:

• Manipur's attempts for more autonomy face challenges, leading to discontent among Kukis.

Illegal Immigration, War on Drugs, and Anxiety over Citizenship:

External factors, such as the illegal migration of Chins from Myanmar and the rise of poppy cultivation, contribute to the conflict. The perceived impact on demographic balance and the 'war on drugs' further heightens tensions. Competing narratives on these issues fuel the ethnic conflict.

A Way Forward:

Addressing the Meitei-Kuki conflict requires urgent, meaningful dialogue and confidence-building measures. Disarming militant groups and civilians engaged in violence is crucial. The state government's political will is central to achieving these goals. Prioritizing dialogue over hostility is essential, with academics and neutral individuals playing a role.

Revisiting political representation and resource distribution can bridge ethnic disparities. Streamlining legislative assembly constituencies and focusing on decentralization and autonomy can address historical imbalances. Initiating discussions on land ownership and equitable development is vital for long-term stability.

Infusing a sense of fraternity among ethnic groups is crucial. Policymaking should transcend short-term electoral interests, focusing on the broader nation-building endeavor. Resolving conflicts through social platforms, rather than solely relying on political mechanisms, can yield more sustainable outcomes.

Conclusion:

The Meitei-Kuki conflict in Manipur is a complex interplay of historical grievances, resource disputes, and identity politics. To forge a path toward peace, a multifaceted approach involving political will, inclusive dialogue, and equitable policies is essential. Manipur's diverse communities must collectively address the root causes, fostering a spirit of unity and cooperation for a harmonious future.

Probable Questions for UPSC mains Exam-

• Examine the socio-political roots of the Meitei-Kuki conflict in Manipur, highlighting the historical factors, territorial integrity concerns, and issues related to uneven development. Discuss the role of ethnic disparities, land ownership restrictions, and the Hill-Valley divide in perpetuating the conflict. Propose comprehensive measures for fostering peace and unity among diverse ethnic communities in the region. ( 10 marks, 150 words)
• Evaluate the impact of governance deficits and demands for autonomy in exacerbating the Meitei-Kuki conflict in Manipur. Analyze the challenges associated with decentralization, ineffective Hill Areas Committee, and the role of autonomous district councils. Discuss the significance of revisiting political representation, resource distribution, and measures to address historical imbalances as potential solutions for long-term stability in the region. ( 15 marks, 250 words)

Source- The Hindu

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Is war on drugs a lost cause in Manipur? India Today finds open cultivation of poppy in some districts

As manipur goes to the polls, india today visited different parts of the state and found that poppy is being cultivated in the open in large quantities..

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The ‘War on Drugs’ is a popular slogan in Manipur politics. But a drive through the districts in the hills showed that state and central authorities are far from winning this war.

India Today found kilometres-long stretches of the hills where trees had been cut down and poppy plants were in full bloom in Kangpokpi district.

POPPY CULTIVATION AN OPEN SECRET

Travelling on the village roads off the highway between Kangpokpi district headquarters, via Sapormeina, Twichamphai and Lamkhajang, towards Saikul town, poppy cultivation was clearly visible. Bright green fields against the darker, drier natural vegetation of the area indicated that something was up.

The poppy cultivation was also visible from the new black-topped hill road that is under construction from Sapormeina to Saikul.

EC SEIZURES, DRUG RAIDS TO NO AVAIL

The Election Commission of India (ECI) said that the 2022 election has seen “record seizures” of illicit drugs, alcohol and contraband material.

According to an ECI press release, authorities had seized contraband items worth Rs 167.83, which is five times more than the seizure during the 2019 Lok Sabha election. This includes drugs worth more than Rs 143.47 crore, including 68.62 kg opium, 5.9 lakh Yaba tablets (crystal meth), Methamphetamine and other drugs.

'SHORTAGE OF MANPOWER': POLICE

The areas that India Today visited in Kangpokpi were accessible through the "village highways". The main highway exists as an alternate route between the bigger towns, bypassing these villages, which are hidden in the "hill shadow areas" where cellphone signal is hard to come by.

These are also Kuki tribal-dominated areas, where armed underground groups are said to be involved in controlling and funding the drug cultivation, refining and trade.

Officials in the state admit that a huge amount of illegal poppy cultivation has been underway in these areas. A senior official on condition of anonymity said that authorities need logistical support and more manpower to combat the problem.

In the bordering town of Moreh in Tengnoupal, drugs are being supplied openly from Myanmar. The porous border and densely forested hills make the area a hub for entry of drugs and other contraband into India.

'DIFFICULT TO STOP SUPPLY LINES'

"These are remote areas where access is difficult. First, the raiding party has to reach the places where there is a risk of attacks by underground groups, then comes the actual destruction of the poppy crop that requires several people and several hours. It is not easy," said an official, pleading anonymity. When it comes to cross-border supply, officers said that there are patrols in the border areas, but with dense forests and constant movement of people, it is difficult to stop the supply lines.

Manipur DGP P Doungel, who hails from the Kangpokpi area, said that there are numerous problems in controlling drug cultivation and trade.

LACK OF EMPLOYMENT

A senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, also told India Today that a big reason behind the expanding poppy cultivation is the lack of employment options and "easy money" in the drug trade.

NEXUS BETWEEN POLITICIANS, DRUG CARTELS

Activist Babloo Loithongbam of the 3.5 Collective and Human Rights Alert said that there is a nexus between political leaders, the administration, police and the drug cartels.

"The northeast is a dark spot for drug trade, as identified by the UNDP. Everyone knows about it," said Babloo. He cited the example of the arrest of the chairman of Chandel Autonomous District Council (ADC) in 2018.

"The ADC chairman was arrested with more than 29 kg of drugs found at his residence. Nothing happened in that case. He was acquitted and his driver and some employees were convicted. We have been trying to file an appeal but the government is not interested," said the activist.

He also said that the "scale of the problem has increased in the last five years, as there has been no CBI investigation into existing drug cartels."

Dennis Lallienzoul, an anti-drug activist from Churachandpur, also told India Today that the ‘War on Drugs’ is focused only on rehabilitation of drug addicts and "ignores the real problem and underlying factors."

"The operations for control of drug supply and poppy cultivation are one or two-day photo ops. It is a continuous problem that has grown over the years because there is no source of employment. The drug cartels pay Rs 500-1000 per day to work in the fields. They have a lot of support from the people, plus the backing of armed groups," said Lallienzoul.

Thounoujam Brinda is a former IPS officer who received a gallantry award for fighting against the drug trade. He later resigned to join politics. Now a JD(U) candidate in the 2022 elections, Brinda said that there is a "clear nexus between those in power and the drug trade".

"Everyone knows what is happening. Political leaders and people in the administration get a cut. That is why there is so much laxity," said Brinda.

ALSO READ: Two killed, five injured in explosion in Manipur's Churachandpur ahead of first phase of polling Published By: Rishabh Sharma Published On: Feb 28, 2022 --- ENDS ---

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Manipur's War on Drugs: Over 2500 arrests and 15,496 acres of poppy cultivation uncovered since 2017

The meitei community accounted for 44 arrests in 2017, 67 in 2018, 64 in 2019, 54 in 2020, 40 in 2021, 98 in 2022, and 14 in 2023, making a combined total of 381 arrests..

• May 16, 2023,
• Updated May 16, 2023, 11:06 PM IST

In a significant move to combat the drug menace in Manipur, the state government has released comprehensive data on the arrests of illicit drug traffickers and the cultivation of poppy during the period 2017-2023. The figures shed light on the efforts undertaken by authorities to curb drug-related activities and safeguard the community's well-being.

Arrests under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act have been categorized by community, providing insights into the extent of involvement and the collective responsibility in addressing this issue.

According to the data, the Kuki-Chin community witnessed a substantial number of arrests over the years. In 2017, 82 individuals were apprehended, followed by 54 in 2018, 122 in 2019, 127 in 2020, 151 in 2021, 288 in 2022, and 49 in 2023, totaling 873 arrests. Similarly, the Muslim community saw 93 arrests in 2017, 223 in 2018, 201 in 2019, 177 in 2020, 163 in 2021, 210 in 2022, and 16 in 2023, with a cumulative total of 1083 arrests.

The Meitei community accounted for 44 arrests in 2017, 67 in 2018, 64 in 2019, 54 in 2020, 40 in 2021, 98 in 2022, and 14 in 2023, making a combined total of 381 arrests. Additionally, there were 12 arrests in the "Others" community in 2017, 9 in 2018, 47 in 2019, 14 in 2020, 36 in 2021, 62 in 2022, and 1 in 2023, resulting in a total of 181 arrests. Overall, a staggering 2518 individuals have been apprehended under NDPS cases during the period of 2017-2023.

In addition to the arrests, the data also highlights the extent of poppy cultivation in Manipur, providing crucial insights into the scale of the issue. The Kuki-Chin community recorded significant areas of poppy cultivation, with a total of 13,121.8 acres during the period of 2017-2023. The Nagas community reported 2340 acres of poppy cultivation, while other communities accounted for 35 acres. In total as of now , the state reported 15,496 acres of poppy cultivation. 

The state government has also emphasized the need for continued vigilance and collaborative efforts from the community to eliminate the drug menace.  Necessary legal follow-up actions and initiatives are currently underway, demonstrating the state's firm resolve to eliminate drug-related activities and create a secure future for Manipur.

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Manipur: why is there conflict and how is the government responding?

As violence between the Meitei and Kuki communities continues in north-east India, campaigners criticise the authorities’ reaction and both sides warn of civil war

How did the conflict in Manipur begin?

Manipur is a state in north-east India with a population of around three million. It has been embroiled in an ethnic conflict since early May , fought between the majority Meitei community and the minority Kuki tribe.

India’s north-eastern states have a history of ethnic rivalries dating back to before the country became independent in 1947. In Manipur, violence has erupted between the Meitei and the Kuki communities several times before.

Tensions had been simmering between the two communities recently, driven in part by the Meitei-controlled state government. The government was accused of pursuing policies that discriminated against Kukis, including forced evictions that threatened the security of their land, and through an attempt to cast them as illegal immigrants.

The violence was sparked by a court ruling in March that granted the majority Meitei “scheduled tribal status”, entitling them to the same economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education as the minority Kuki.

It also allowed Meiteis to buy land in the hills, where the Kukis predominately live, further fuelling fears that their lands, jobs and opportunities would be taken away.

This prompted protests, mostly by Kuki student groups, which were met with violence and by early May, it had escalated into all-out violence.

In the state capital, Imphal, Meitei mobs began targeting Kuki homes and attacked Kuki people who tried to flee the city for the hills, where they control much of the land. Kuki villages were also burned to the ground by Meitei militias numbering in their hundreds, sometimes thousands.

The court ruling was later stayed by the supreme court, which called it “factually wrong”, but by then the conflict had already taken hold.

How has the violence unfolded?

The majority of the violence was initially perpetrated by Meitei groups against the Kuki villages and communities. As the clashes spread, villages were burned down and more than 250 churches belonging to the Kuki community, who are Christian, were destroyed.

As fake news and misinformation circulated, claiming that Meitei women had been raped and killed by Kukis, Kuki women began to be systematically targeted in revenge attacks, which included rape, torture and assault. There have also been several reports of beheadings.

The state was swiftly bifurcated along ethnic lines, with the Meiteis in the valley and the Kukis in the hills, defending their territory against violent mobs, with a buffer zone created in the middle.

To enter the territory of the opposing tribe was soon considered to be a death sentence. Much of the violence has been fought with thousands of weapons stolen from police and army barracks.

So far, more than 140 people have died in the violence and 60,000 have been displaced. The internet remains shut down in large parts of the state.

Though the state and central government – which are both ruled by the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) – have claimed that the situation has begun to calm down, intermittent clashes have continued to erupt and those fighting on both sides have warned that Manipur remains on the brink of civil war.

The clashes have renewed and strengthened a longstanding demand by the Kukis for their own separate state . Kuki groups say the violence has proved they can no longer live safely under the oppressions of a Meitei-dominant state and have pledged they will not stop fighting until their own state is granted. The Meitei community and the state government fiercely oppose the creation of a separate Kuki state.

How has the government responded?

Even as the violence escalated, the response from the central BJP government was notably muted. The BJP state government – dominated by the Meitei community – has been accused of being complicit in the violence against the Kuki minority by allowing Meitei gangs to carry out violence with impunity.

Prime minister Narendra Modi maintained a months-long public silence on the conflict and has yet to visit Manipur since the violence broke out.

It was only after a viral video of two Kuki women being forcibly stripped naked, publicly groped and then allegedly gang raped by a Meitei mob caused outrage across the country that Modi commented on the issue.

Modi said that “what happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven” and that the “entire country had been shamed by the incident”.

However, he has faced criticism for not addressing the broader conflict or referring to those who have died in the fighting. Some allege that the Hindu nationalist Modi government is not stepping in to protect the Kukis, who are Christian, from the Meitei, who are Hindu.

India’s home minister, Amit Shah, visited Manipur at the end of May, but he failed to bring about a ceasefire between the groups or bring the two parties together for negotiation. The “peace committee” set up by Shah has been shunned by Kuki groups, who allege it is dominated by Meitei figures, including the BJP chief minister.

Police have been accused of refusing to assist those in the Kuki community who have been attacked and have not investigated reports of rape, torture and violence against the Kukis. It wasn’t until the video of Kuki women being stripped naked, assaulted and allegedly gang-raped went viral that the police arrested four Meitei men – more than 70 days after the attack took place.

The supreme court also chastised the government for not getting the situation in Manipur under control. Chief justice Dhananjaya Chandrachud said: “It’s time that the government really steps in and takes action because this is simply unacceptable”

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2023 Manipur Violence Explained [UPSC Notes]

Manipur’s ethnic composition.

• Geographical features and the location of the State have a significant influence on the problems faced by Manipur. 
• There are 16 districts in Manipur and the State is said to be divided into “valley” and “hill” districts. 
• The Imphal Valley lies at the centre of the State and is surrounded by hills.
• Four highways act as the access points to the valley from the rest of the region out of which two highways are regarded as the “lifelines for the State”. 
• People belonging to the Meitei community account for over 64% of the State population and yield 40 out of the 60 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of the State.
• Meanwhile, the hills that account for close to 90% of the geographical area of the State are inhabited by about 35% recognised tribes but are represented by only 20 MLAs.
• The majority of the Meiteis are Hindus followed by Muslims and the 33 recognised tribes who are broadly categorised as “Any Naga tribes” and “Any Kuki tribes” are mainly Christians.

Manipur Violence Historical Background

Image Source: Indian Express

• The kingdom of Kangleipak was ruled by the Ningthouja dynasty. 
• According to many historians, the tribal patches outside the valley were also part of the kingdom. However, such claims are disputed by the tribes, especially the Naga tribes.
• The kingdom of Kangleipak, which was a British protectorate, was repeatedly attacked by the Naga tribes from the northern hills. 
• In order to protect the valley, the British political agent in Manipur is said to have brought the Kuki-Zomi from the Kuki-Chin hills of Burma to make it a buffer territory between the Meiteis and the Nagas.
• The Kukis, similar to the Nagas, were fierce headhunting warriors and the Maharaja provided them land along the ridges, where they could act as a shield for the valley.

Meitei Community’s Demands for ST Status

• Since 2012, there has been a constant demand led by the Scheduled Tribes Demand Committee of Manipur (STDCM) for granting the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Meitei community.
• The Meetei (Meitei) Tribe Union had filed a petition before the Manipur High Court and had argued that the Meitei community was once recognised as a “tribe” before the merger of the princely state of Manipur with the Union of India in 1949 and that it lost its identity as a tribe after the merger.
• The Meitei community has been victimised without any constitutional protection. 
• They have been gradually marginalised in their ancestral land. 
• And the population of the Meitei community has reduced from 59% of the total population of Manipur in 1951 to 44% as per 2011 Census data.

Manipur High Court’s Judgement

• The Manipur High Court on April 19, 2023, asked the Manipur government to submit a 10-year-old recommendation to the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry for the inclusion of the Meitei community in the ST list within four weeks.
• The High Court referred to the Union Tribal Ministry’s letter to the State government in May 2013 which had sought recommendations along with the latest socio-economic survey and ethnographic report.

Opposition by other tribal groups

• The demand for ST status for the Meitei community has been opposed by the other tribal groups of the state.
• They further argue that the Meitei community is more advanced than the tribal groups academically and in other aspects. 
• According to the various tribal organisations, granting ST status to the Meiteis would result in the loss of employment opportunities and would also allow Meiteis to acquire land in the hills which would ultimately push the tribals out.
• Additionally, groups like the All Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur also argue that the Manipuri language of the Meiteis is included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and that various sections of the community are already enjoying various benefits associated with the Scheduled Castes (SC) or Other Backward Classes (OBC) status. 

Recent Unrest in Manipur

• Following the April 19th directives of the Manipur High Court, the All Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur (ATSUM) called for a “Tribal Solidarity March”.
• The March was organised in protest against the demand for the inclusion of the Meitei community in the ST category.  However, violent clashes broke out at various places during the march.
• The situation in Manipur turned extreme and violent which saw the deployment of the Indian Army and other central police forces.
• The Manipur government also authorised all District Magistrates to issue “ shoot at sight orders ” in “extreme cases” in order to control the situation.

Other reasons for the recent unrest

• The divide between the Meiteis and tribals such as Kukis on various issues has aggravated in recent years.
• Displeasure over the state government’s notices which claim that the 38 villages in the Churachandpur-Khoupum Protected Forest area are “illegal settlements” and its residents are “encroachers” and the eviction drive that followed the notices led to serious clashes.
• Concerns and displeasure over the first delimitation process in the state since 1973.
• Meitei leaders have alleged that there has been a sudden mushrooming of villages in the Churachandpur district.
• The Kuki-Zomi tribesmen of both countries are bound by strong links of ethnicity, customs, language, and dress.
• Pro-government groups in the State believe that a few tribal groups with vested interests are trying to scuttle the government’s battle against drugs.
• Ethnic conflict between the hill communities and the Meiteis has continued to exist ever since the time of the kingdom of Kangleipak.
• These tensions and conflicts escalated during the 1950s with the rise of the Naga national movement and the demands for an independent Naga nation. 
• The Naga insurgency was countered by the rise of insurgent groups among the Meiteis and Kuki-Zomi.
• In the 1990s, as the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM), which is one of the largest Naga groups, pushed harder for self-determination, the Kuki-Zomi groups began to militarise.
• The Kukis later launched their own movement for “Kukiland”, which demanded the creation of a separate state within India.
• Although the Kukis once were the protectors of the Meitei people, the “Kukiland movement” created a rift between the communities.

Supreme Court’s Views

• The Supreme Court has regarded the Manipur crisis as a “humanitarian problem” and expressed concerns about the loss of life and property.
• The apex court had further noted that it is the President who has the power to designate a community as Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe and not the High Court.
• The Chief Justice of India (CJI) has urged the Centre and the Manipur government to undertake efforts to protect the people.

Centre’s stand

• The Union Home Minister said that the order passed by the Manipur High Court will be studied and discussed with all stakeholders and appropriate decisions will be taken after consultation.
• The Indian Army has deployed Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and helicopters to increase surveillance on the situation in Manipur and along the Indo-Myanmar Border.

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Manipur Sharpens Narcotics Force, To Restart Anti-Poppy Cultivation Drive Along Myanmar Border

Manipur's war on drugs: the anti-narcotics task force (antf) has been refreshed with a set of new officers to continue the drive against illegal poppy cultivation and opium processing; the new team includes agriculture, forensics and cybercrime experts.

A lanced poppy capsule oozing opium latex

Nearly five months since ethnic clashes began in Manipur, some early signs tell of delicate normalcy. Amid this, the Manipur government has sharpened its task force to deal with drug trafficking and narcotics.

The task force has been refreshed with a set of new officers to continue the drive against illegal poppy cultivation and opium processing. The scale of poppy cultivation in Manipur had spread across over 18,000 acres of land in the hills between 2017 and 2023, according to data from the state government.

The anti-poppy cultivation drive was seen as one of the factors that added to strained tries between the Chin-Kuki tribes and the state government before May 3, the day the ethnic violence began.

The refreshed Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) not only has experienced police officers, but also agriculture, forensics and cybercrime experts. The team will carry out large-scale surveys, verification and destruction of illegal poppy farms in Manipur, people with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV.

Poppy farms in Myanmar's Chin State's northern tip are just 60 km from Manipur's border town Moreh

Chief Minister N Biren Singh's "war on drugs" campaign since the BJP came to power in Manipur in 2017 has disrupted the drug-trafficking network operating along the Manipur section of the India-Myanmar border. A major chunk of poppy cultivation has been found in the hill areas, where the Chin-Kuki tribes are a majority.

Only 10 per cent of the 400-km international border that lies in Manipur is fenced, leaving it wide open as a transit route for drug trafficking to northeast India from the "Golden Triangle" - the tri-junction of the Myanmar, Laos and Thailand borders.

"We have formed a joint committee with the state's anti-narcotics force and the Narcotics Control Bureau. We will continue the surveys and destruction of poppy cultivation," Mr Singh said.

Illegal poppy cultivation was wiped out from 3,861 acres in 2018; it was 4,175 acres in 2019; 2020 (1,382 acres), 2021 (5,740 acres), 2022 (3,696 acres) and 2023 (2,499 acres from January to April). This amounts to over 18,000 acres in five years, excluding the January-April period this year.

Manipur anti-narcotics personnel destroy a poppy farm in the hills (File)

The Manipur government has also asked the centre to start border-fencing work as soon as possible and to cancel the "free movement regime" between India and Myanmar - a bilateral protocol under which citizens of the neighbouring countries can travel 16 km inland on either side without travel papers.

"We immediately need border-fencing. The Home Ministry has sanctioned work on 60 km and the Border Roads Organisation has taken up the task. We want the free movement regime to end and have told the centre that it was because of this policy that we could not check illegal immigrants effectively," the Chief Minister said.

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The issue of alleged illegal immigrants from Myanmar is seen as another big factor behind the Manipur crisis. The hill-majority tribes say people of the same clans and communities have been living in either side of the border and have family ties going back to pre-Independence years.

"We welcome the formation of the new anti-narcotics task force. But we have apprehensions since the (valley) majority Meitei community is actually the supporter of the state. There are also allegations that people in the state government are involved in drug trafficking," said Muan Tombing, general secretary of the Chin-Kuki group Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF).

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