In this episode of The Editorial, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses the unfolding unrest in the northeastern state of Manipur. With reports of escalating tensions, Mr. Nair emphasizes the urgent need for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attention to address the situation in Manipur.
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[00:00:00] Namaskar! Three bodies were found in Jiri River in Jiribam district of Manipur. These three bodies were of a woman and two children. If you remember, two days back I had spoken to you about six people abducted from Jiribam in Manipur, abducted by militants.
[00:00:30] These were the bodies of one of those women and two of those three children.
[00:00:41] Let's talk about Manipur. Let's get right into the show.
[00:00:48] Day before yesterday, I had reported a family of six missing from Jiribam in Manipur. Family of six included three women and three children, including one small infant.
[00:01:05] Now today, three bodies were found in Jiri River. These three bodies included one woman of those six abducted and two children. This abduction was the handiwork of militants there. That is what is said. And the NIA is investigating the case.
[00:01:28] The Jiribam MLA, his name is Ashab Udin. Ashab Udin says that, you see, the chief minister has not given me any powers. The chief minister is not giving me any responsibility to go and work for my people.
[00:01:47] Because I have no instructions from the local administration.
[00:01:55] The chief minister is not willing to listen to me. So there is hardly anything that I am able to do for my people. This is what the local MLA, Ashab Udin says.
[00:02:05] Now, NIA through its investigation has been saying that, Mizaram weapons have been supplied from Mizaram to Manipur via Myanmar.
[00:02:23] So there is an outside interference in this particular unrest that is going on Manipur. This is what NIA says.
[00:02:37] The question that I want to ask tonight is, the chief minister had said, he had made a statement that the actual issue here, that is for the unrest was drugs.
[00:02:53] The detection of illegal immigrants, that destroyed poppy plantation from the reserve forest areas.
[00:03:01] However, the immediate reason was the high court's order.
[00:03:06] So he blamed this unrest on everything. High court's order, poppy cultivation, drugs, illegal immigrants.
[00:03:14] He blamed it on everybody except for the fact that his government, his administration was not effective enough to control the violence.
[00:03:25] My question, like I said tonight is that those two children, those two children who were found dead, what drug cartel do they belong to?
[00:03:41] What drug cartel do they belong to? What illegal immigrants are there?
[00:03:48] That woman who died, what illegal immigrants is she? Three lives were lost among so many lives. Three more lives were lost.
[00:04:02] And we are still giving excuses about illegal immigrants, about drug cartels, about everything. Everything.
[00:04:11] High court order, about everything except for the real reason.
[00:04:15] And that is absolute lack in administrative ability of this particular chief minister and his administration.
[00:04:23] The question is, you know, there was an audio tape that was perpetratedly leaked and that is featuring CM Biren Singh.
[00:04:42] This audio cassette was perpetratedly leaked in August 2024 and on the clip perpetrated to be that of Mr. Singh, Mr. Biren Singh.
[00:04:53] It is heard, taking credit for how and why the conflict started and bragging that he had defied Union Home Minister Amit Shah's order against the use of bombs in the conflict and shielding the individuals who snatched thousands of weapons from the state police armories from arrest.
[00:05:14] Now, this is a perpetrated audio conversation. It is alleged. There is no proof. It is still not proven.
[00:05:24] Now, the Supreme Court incidentally on 8th of November, the Supreme Court has asked to examine the audio tapes against the Manipur chief minister in the riot case.
[00:05:35] The Supreme Court has given that judgment. The CGI, then, then CGI, Justice D.Y. Chandra Chud, had said that it is because we are not sitting on ivory towers that we are willing to hear this application.
[00:05:48] We have a constitutional obligation and we have to know what is happening on ground. Let us first see what they are producing before us.
[00:05:57] So, he said, please produce this before us and let us examine the particular tapes and see how true these tapes are.
[00:06:04] In the meantime, the Manipur government refuted the allegations twice on August 7th and when the Kuki students organization released part of the audio clip on August 20th, when the news website, the wire reported about the matter, they refused saying that this is doctored.
[00:06:20] This has been the stance of Manipur government. Now, we don't know whether it is doctored, whether it is true. We don't know. We are not aware of that. But this happened. We want to bring to your notice.
[00:06:34] Another issue that I want to talk to you about is 10 Kuki ZO MLAs said that they never met the chief minister on May 23.
[00:06:46] 10 Kuki ZO MLAs had gone and said that you see, it was a blatant lie when a top government lawyer submission to Supreme Court that the chief minister has been meeting Kuki MLAs in effort to bring peace.
[00:07:04] The top lawyers went and told the Supreme Court that Mr. Biren Singh, the chief minister is meeting Kuki ZO MLAs so that they can bring about peace.
[00:07:14] The Kuki ZO MLAs, 10 Kuki ZO MLAs said, this has not happened. This is a lie is what they said.
[00:07:21] Asfa was imposed on Manipur. Asfa is the Armed Forces Special Power Act. That has been imposed day before yesterday and that's where the status is at the moment.
[00:07:40] You see, I think it is time that the Prime Minister of India takes responsibility for what is happening in Manipur.
[00:07:55] I think it is time that the government of India says, Mary Ladli Behna to those women in Manipur who are dying and who are being raped.
[00:08:08] I think it is time that our government of India says it. Our government of India takes cognizance to it. And like I said, you know, they too are our Mary Piari Behna.
[00:08:22] So what if they are not going for elections? If war against drugs, if war against drugs are going to cost us life of children and women, innocent children and women,
[00:08:39] then this war and the person who has perpetrated this war and the person who is leading this war, there is something wrong with all of this.
[00:08:49] War against drugs should be targeting drug peddlers, drug mafias, not children.
[00:08:57] I have not heard of a drug mafia who got killed. I have not heard of a drug mafia who was put in behind bars.
[00:09:04] In fact, I had a senior police officer in my channel. I spoke to her and she said that the chief minister,
[00:09:11] she had caught a drug mafia and the chief minister had asked her to release that drug mafia because he was an important person.
[00:09:18] This is what happened in your channel and the interview is there with me. I will put that clip.
[00:09:23] Ma'am, you arrested a kingpin. You arrested a kingpin. You were pressurized to let him off.
[00:09:29] What was that, ma'am? Can you tell us that incident?
[00:09:33] Yes, I arrested a former ADC chairman from the Hill District.
[00:09:42] The chief minister ordered in the very next day, the chief minister ordered me to let him off in a sense of his wife and his son
[00:09:50] because he turned out to be the right-hand man of his second wife, Olic, who is the elected family from the Chandel constituency right now.
[00:10:00] He actively pressured me and he pressured the DGP to order me and my ST to remove the Tarsip from the court
[00:10:08] so that the accused would be let off on bail, you know, under completion of the mandatory 180 days of submission of Tarsip.
[00:10:19] Spelling with the accused would be automatically let off on bail.
[00:10:24] So this is what took place.
[00:10:26] The point that I am trying to make is if this is the truth, then what is this fight all about?
[00:10:32] If this is the truth, then what drug are you fighting?
[00:10:37] And if this is the truth, then what administration are you heading?
[00:10:42] It is beyond time that the centre gets involved.
[00:10:46] It is beyond time that the prime minister takes cognizance to this.
[00:10:50] It is beyond time that the prime minister keeps all the elections and everything aside
[00:10:54] and focuses on Manipur and resolves it because this is one of the biggest issues that's happening in India.
[00:11:01] And it's been happening for over a year.
[00:11:04] It is not something that happened just yesterday or day before yesterday and can be sorted day after tomorrow.
[00:11:09] It is not.
[00:11:10] Now one realizes it.
[00:11:14] The prime minister has to take responsibility of this.
[00:11:18] And the prime minister needs to intervene and sort it.
[00:11:20] That's all I need to say and I pray for all the people of Manipur.
[00:11:24] I pray for their safety.
[00:11:26] I pray that peace comes back.
[00:11:29] I pray that normalcy returns to Manipur as soon as possible.
[00:11:34] Till I see you next time.
[00:11:34] That's tomorrow at 10.
[00:11:36] Namaskar.