Manipur peace requires community dialogue, not military force: Kiren Rijiju

Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday said the warring communities in Manipur must talk to each other to ensure permanent peace in the troubled state, as the Centre cannot use the military to end the conflict, which has been going on intermittently for more than three years.

Addressing a conclave organised by the Assam-based Pratidin Media Network here, Rijiju also said that “humiliation and insult” towards small communities by successive governments since Independence led to the formation of a large number of militant groups in the Northeast.

Sharing his own experience of facing humiliation at the hands of then-Union Home Minister SB Chavan in the 1990s – when he and other students went to meet him as part of a student delegation – Rijiju said Chavan even insulted then-Union minister of state PK Thungon for accompanying the students, terming them “gunda” (rowdies).

Talking about the ongoing conflict in Manipur, the minister for parliamentary and minority affairs said the Meitei and Kuki communities, as well as the Naga and Kuki communities, must talk to each other to find an amicable solution.

“I have a simple formula. Surrender arms, and peace will automatically come. We cannot use the military because its side effects are huge. The groups should talk to each other. There should be dialogue. A solution will come through talks, and only then will peace prevail,” he said.

Rijiju said everyone should appeal to the fighting groups to abjure violence and surrender arms; there can be no development without peace, he said. There was a time when even the most junior officer of the Union Government was always dismissive of the problems faced by the small communities in the Northeast and would sometimes not even grant an appointment, Rijiju said.

“Frustrated by such behaviour, many groups went back to their homes in the Northeast, took up arms, and engaged in violence,” he said.

The minister asserted that no one can support or validate militants taking up arms, as there can be no justification for such acts in a democracy.

“But we have to see why they took up arms,” he said.

However, the minister noted that the situation has changed completely in the last 12-and-a-half years since the Narendra Modi Government came to power.

“Today, the Northeast is no longer an isolated and neglected region. In the last 12-and-a-half years, from what I have seen, it has changed so much. In fact, we are becoming one of the engines of growth for India,” he said.

However, Rijiju added that sometimes one or two incidents can entirely spoil the progress.

“More than 10,000 militants have surrendered in the last 12-and-a-half years and joined the mainstream,” he said.

Sharing his life journey from a small village in Arunachal Pradesh, Rijiju said, “I grew up in a place so remote that I did not know what was happening in the world.  Coming from such a background, I am now in a position where my decisions and contributions are critical to national politics – at the heart of Indian politics.”

The minister also said that Parliament is the symbol of Indian democracy. “Sitting there to formulate policies and shape the destiny of India is a great journey and a vast opportunity for someone like me,” he said.