Following the decision of the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), all government offices, previously closed indefinitely due to the brutal killing of two Kuki-Zo volunteers in the Phailengmol region, were reopened on Monday.
The committee made this decision to reopen offices as an acknowledgement of the impossibility of maintaining a single administrative court for the two distinct political, physical, and geographical communities: the Kuki-Zo community in the hills and the Meitei community in the valley.
“This highlights the indifferent attitudes shown by N Biren Singh towards the closure of government offices in Sadar Hills Kangpokpi for nearly a month and his inability to address cases of rape and murder against the minority Kuki-Zo community by providing fair justice protections. It is a clear indication of nepotism and hegemony in his administration,” CoTU stated.
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The committee appealed to all state and national mainstream media platforms, including TV channels, to refrain from publishing or airing irrelevant issues such as the renaming of places or villages Kuki-Zo-dominated areas, while overlooking the gross human rights violations and continuous atrocities by the majority communities in the state.
It maintained that such biased reporting against one community over the other is a major factor in prolonging the unrest in the erstwhile state of Manipur.
Therefore, in the larger interest of fair and ethical journalism in the country, the Committee urges concerned parties to verify sources before publishing or airing news content, to avoid unnecessary incitement of hatred between the two warring communities in the northeastern states of India, CoTU said.
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