Jamkhojang Misao, Founder and Director of Kangpokpi-based InSIDE-North East in Manipur
Imphal/New Delhi:
A social worker in Manipur whose nonprofit work was heralded as a success story in helping youth and women in the border state hit by gun violence has found himself in a huge controversy over his comments in a YouTube interview in which he was heard talking about the “need to escalate the Manipur crisis” to keep the demand for a separate government “alive”.
Jamkhojang Misao (aka Misao Hejang Hangmi aka Hejang Misao), founder and director of the Integrated Social And Institutional Development for Empowerment (InSIDE-North East), said in an interview on the YouTube channel 'Nampi Media Jampilal' that the struggle for a separate country This process has been going on since the time of his ancestors, and despite there being multiple factions of insurgents with numerous different demands, they all eventually managed to agree on one issue: a separate board.
“However, the movement of separate administration has now reduced. We will not have this opportunity again, and such an opportunity will not arise again. We must use this moment to create an even more chaotic situation so that everyone who sees us will say: we can never live together,” Mr Misao said, referring to the ethnic violence in Manipur between the Meitei community and more than a dozen different tribes collectively known as Kuki, which are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur.
He spoke in his dialect in the interview, which was translated for NDTV and supported by three sources from the Kuki tribes.
“After the violence in Manipur, the armed groups have come together on one demand. This is a work of God. But the Meiteis do not want to give us a separate administration. SoO groups have also signed that the territorial integrity of Manipur will not be harmed. But it seems that God's plan is to give the Kukis a nation, and I think there is if there had been no violence, we would not have had the opportunity to demand a separate government' , Misao said, referring to nearly two dozen. Kuki-Zo militant groups who signed the controversial Suspension of Operations Agreement (SoO), which expired in February this year. One of the clauses in the SoO agreement says that the territorial integrity of Manipur will not be affected.
Calls to the phone numbers listed on InSIDE-North East's website went unanswered.
He was among a group of people in the social services sector selected to meet former President Ram Nath Kovind in January 2020. He highlighted InSIDE-North East's 'Gun2Pen' program – among many other projects – which the non-profit organization says has helped more than 5,000 young people find the right path.
“It's all God's work… this indicates that God has a plan for us. The buffer zone is proof of the separation. Despite all these gains and God's help, it seems that we cannot seize the opportunity. The Meiteis are started it, burned our houses, killed our people, paraded naked with women,” said Mr Misao, who belongs to the Any Kuki Tribe (AKT) which was added to the list of Scheduled Tribes in 2003.
“If they created the situation, how can we continue to escalate it and keep it alive, then our demand will be seriously considered? Now the momentum of the individual government demand is slowly dying. Even the Prime Minister in Parliament says normality has disappeared. Come to Manipur. Schools are running, markets are running, government offices are also running, those who are going to give us separate administration themselves say normalcy has returned,” Mr Misao said in the interview.
“Even if we disagree with the government's claim that normalcy has returned, New Delhi has already declared normalcy. So, in a place where normality reigns, who is going to raise our issues? When the government says in parliament that there is normality, we must do something to show that there is no normality,” Mr Misao said.
Information from the central government's Non-Profit Organization (NPO) database 'Darpan' shows that Mr Misao registered the Integrated Social and Institutional Development for Empowerment in Manipur's Kangpokpi district in February 2013.
The public database contains unique identity numbers of non-profit organizations. This unique ID number is mandatory if an NPO wants to withdraw money from government services and ministries. Mr Misao's NPO has been issued a unique identity number – MN/2017/0177675 – with which it can apply for subsidies from government departments and ministries.
“It is a shame that we are not able to take advantage of the situation. Whether it concerns armed groups, civil society groups or individuals, we must introspect and reassess the situation as full normality is not yet achieved. The world should know this. There will be no peace in Manipur without a solution. If leaders of the world and India want to see it, we have to do something so that they know that Manipur needs a solution for peace,” said the social worker from Kangpokpi district.
He blamed the leaders for weakening the resolve to demand a separate government.
“…If God has shown us the path, the leaders should have led the public forward… There was a man in Nagaland, C. Singson, who asked the Indian interlocutor in Bangkok during the Naga talks: why is the Kuki issue never brought up?
“The Indian interlocutor replied that Kukis have never been a problem, and there is nothing to discuss about them. However, the Meiteis, with their actions against the Kukis, who have never had any real grievances, have created a situation that has made the Indian government realize that the Kukis have a problem.
“Not only the Indian government, the entire world has now recognized the problem of the Kukis. That problem must continue to escalate. If that problem does not escalate, then the demand we put forward is not politically strong and reasonable. Meiteis has made us politically strong, but today we don't know how to move forward. That is very unfortunate,” Mr Misao said.
There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei dominated valley. More than 250 people have been killed and nearly 50,000 have been internally displaced in the clashes between the Meiteis and Kuki tribes.
The general category of Meiteis wants to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category.
The Kukis, who share ethnic ties with people in neighboring Chin and Mizoram states, want a separate government to be formed in Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal distribution of resources and power with the Meiteis.
