The nation’s conscience has been shaken yet again—this time because of the sexual assault of a Kuki mother and daughter who were stripped naked and paraded while being groped and raped by a mob in Manipur. The video footage showing the women weeping, wincing in pain and begging their attackers to show some mercy is deeply disturbing. The women are now in shelter homes, waiting for justice. One hopes it wouldn’t be yet another endless wait. The National Crime Record Bureau statistics show that over 80% of sexual violence cases are still pending disposal in various courts. What is even more distressing is that two arrests in the horrific crime have been made more than two months after the incident—that too after the video footage led to a massive outrage nationally. In the interim, only a zero first information report was filed against unidentified persons. This is simply unacceptable in any civilised society, as many of the men are clearly identifiable in the video, which has now been taken down after the Centre’s intervention.
The Centre as well as the state government must answer why the state police dragged its feet in the case. For, this was no ordinary crime. Quite understandably, it has raised questions about the failure of the State in protecting its citizens. It’s also quite inexplicable why the State action had to wait for a rap on its knuckles by the Supreme Court which on Thursday issued a veiled threat by saying that it will step in if the government fails to take action to prevent the grossest of constitutional and human rights violations. The state police apathy is more than evident in the statements of the two women from the Kuki-Zomi community. They told The Indian Express that they had been “left to the mob by the police” after they had fled to a forest for shelter following the torching of their village in Kangpokpi district.
The silence that screams the loudest is that of prime minister Narendra Modi. It is puzzling why he waited for the video footage to rock the nation before breaking his silence on the Manipur violence. Since his is the only voice that seems to matter in this government, the PM should have spoken much earlier. Surely, a video footage of an incident that happened 78 days ago can’t be the only source of information for the country’s PM and the Union home ministry. The PM’s prolonged silence has been deafening also because at least 130 people have died and 60,000 have been displaced since ethnic clashes started between the Meitei and Kuki communities in the state in May.
Manipur has seen a direct battle between insurgent groups and security forces over the past couple of months—something that has not been seen in the Northeast, across any of its states, for decades. A two-fold exodus has already occurred—the Meiteis driven out by the Kuki-Zomi community on the edges of the Imphal Valley and Kuki-Zomis by the Meiteis in Imphal. So what we have witnessed is a deep social and political dislocation—something that the current state government has not been able to control. It may be time to think of an alternative leadership as the present one is clearly unable to govern effectively. Manipur needs swift and decisive action for the sake of the idea called India.