There might be inter-tribal rivalry among the various sub-tribes and clans of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo collective identity, but going by the chatter on social media they seem to have a sort of prime mover in the political chessboard and of course, a well-oiled common IT cell which manufactures ‘content’ and spreads it through the various handles, in bid to control the narrative. Two separate studies by neutral researchers came up with startling patterns of how the narratives were being manufactured and organically built on X. They shared their findings with The Reporters’ Collective.
Most media reports suggested that the conflict began with a sudden and unexpected outbreak of violence on May 3. Similar to the situation on the ground, social media users were quick to respond, the research suggested. More than 100 handles were created in the first few days of the violence. Their research showed that initially, handles sympathising with or affiliated with the Kuki community mushroomed and tweeted actively with well-coordinated messaging. Meitei-associated handles got into the narrative game much later. Still, the Kuki handles are ahead in the race for control of the narrative both in the social media and among the anti-establishment ‘mainstream’ media.
They have tried almost every trick in the book to carry forward their agenda. They lured wannabe historians to rewrite history and project a minor rebellion to the scale of a war against a colonial power; they tried convincing the Nagas in the name of tribal solidarity; they razed whole neighbourhoods in their dominions and play the victim when others retaliate; they attack and overrun defenceless villages and they cry foul when the villagers armed themselves to protect their villages; they raise hell when law enforcing agencies evict forest encroachers and destroy poppy fields in the name of ‘ancestral land’ which were never theirs; they destroy temples and commit sacrilege at sacred places of other communities while they seek sympathy from Christian lobbies citing anti-Christian activities and burning of churches; they manipulate sections of media struggling to resist the BJP onslaught to seek sympathy in the name of majority-minority friction; they play the victim card to the hilt by bombarding the national media and social media with concocted historical narratives and false propaganda and in the not-so-distant past, as a victim of an imagined ‘genocide’ started by the majority Meitei community; their women and children were made to wave the Indian tricolour in the streets when Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Churachandpur and Kangpokpi; their womenfolk will lay prostrate before some commander and wail ‘We need you, don’t leave us’ all night long even to the extent of tugging at their trousers; they will make a big thing of a public screening of a Hindi film in Churachandpur as against the boycott of Hindi films in the valley; and they even celebrated Indian Independence Day August 15 in a public ground which ended up in a mockery of the Indian tricolour. The list is endless.
In the latest case, they are trying hard to project the Koutruk attack and bombing which killed a woman and injured several others as a case of ‘retaliation’ against an ‘ambush’ by Meitei militia groups on the Kuki civilians in the infamous ‘German Road’ which connects Churachandpur with Kangpokpi.
In fact, Manipur police with the help of central forces had cleared the fringe villages in the valley adjoining the ‘German Road’ of armed village volunteers and other elements in a massive operation. So, the question of valley militia groups laying an ambush near Kangchup was a construct of the said IT cell. The use of high-tech drones to bomb the fringe villages of the valley was indeed an act of terrorism and they are trying hard to put the blame on Meitei militia groups.
Except for some die-hard supporters in the anti-establishment ‘mainstream’ media, everyone is taking their version with a pinch of salt. The implications of bombing civilians with high-tech drones were hard for the central agencies to ignore or not to notice. In fact, the security establishment here under the command and control of the Home ministry had already pinned the act of drone bombing on ‘suspected’ Kuki militants.
