Home Secretary likely to visit Manipur next week

Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan to visit Manipur amid protests, civil disobedience call, and demands for restoration of democracy.

Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan is likely to visit Manipur next week, on June 2 and June 3, in the wake of fresh protests and a “civil disobedience” call by Meitei groups in the northeastern State over the May 20 incident in Gwaltabi. On that day, security forces allegedly tried to cover the word ‘Manipur’ on a State transport bus that was ferrying journalists to the hill district of Ukhrul for the Shirui Lily festival.

After arriving in Imphal, the Home Secretary is likely to visit the Kuki-Zo areas in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi to review relief and rehabilitation work and the overall security scenario in the State, officials said.

In an unprecedented turn of events, Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla, upon his arrival from Delhi on May 29, had to take a helicopter for the seven-kilometre journey from Imphal Airport to Raj Bhavan as protestors swarmed the roads seeking his apology for the Gwaltabi incident.

The Coordination Committee for Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an Imphal-based Meitei civil society group, has called for the removal of all top government officials in the State, including the Director General of Police (DGP) and the Chief Secretary. This week, civilians also locked Government of India offices. The civil disobedience call given by COCOMI continues, with journalists boycotting all government functions and events.

After President’s Rule was imposed in the State on February 13, there has been a sharp drop in the number of violent incidents, and more than 350 people have been arrested for extortion, abductions, and threatening civilians. However, around 60,000 people who were displaced from their homes when ethnic violence between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei people started in May 2023 are yet to be resettled and continue to live in relief camps. Around 250 people have been killed in the ethnic violence so far.

Several civil society groups and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have demanded the restoration of the democratic set-up, and 10 Manipur legislators met Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla on May 28 at the Raj Bhavan to seek the formation of a “popular” government.

Earlier, on May 5, BJP’s North East in-charge Sambit Patra met former Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, BJP legislators in the valley and hills, and Kuki-Zo and Zomi civil society organisations. After the Gwaltabi incident, representatives of two different Meitei civil society organisations were called to Delhi to meet A.K. Mishra, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) North-East Adviser.