In the last two days, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, in a move the Supreme Court is not known for, has been raising unusual criticisms and tough questions to the Central and State Governments on the issue of Manipur genocide. Stating that what is happening in Manipur is not an isolated incident of violence, but a systematic crime, the Supreme Court openly remarked that the constitutional system has completely broken down in Manipur. Based on the democratic practices our country has acquired over the past seven and a half decades, the Manipur government should be willing to immediately vacate its duties. There should also be pressure on the union Home Minister to resign, taking moral responsibility for not being able to resolve the three-month-long riots and restore peace. Unfortunately, despite the fact the Supreme Court's repeated comments that there has been a complete breakdown of governance systems in the new India led by Narendra Modi and the number of facts undermining it, why is it that there is no resignation or dismissal of the bigwigs in the administration? This is also after questions have been raised by the court which Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has not been able to answer.
It is being proved that a regime that came to power through genocides and planned riots cannot bring peace to the country, suppress insurgents, or restore peace. The reaction from Imphal to the Supreme Court's judgement was in the form of more houses of the Kuki tribes being set on fire. All media outlets in the country had to publish pictures of burning villages along with the news of the extraordinary intervention of the Supreme Court. What more proof is needed than that in Manipur, administration and aggressor are one and the same. There would be nothing more foolish than to think that no arrests have been made in even a handful of the 6523 cases registered related to the riots. The victims have no legal aid and the cases are not being filed even months after the incidents have taken place. It is a bigger joke to expect justice and democratic values from those who stepped on the Gujarat riots and genocide to rise to power.
The history of communal conflicts in India suggests that such riots are always possible only with the connivance of the state. It is more evident in the case of Manipur. In light of this historical experience, Satyapal Malik, who was a lifelong supporter of RSS and governor of Kashmir, gave a speech in Delhi the other day and gave a warning that the fire that started in Haryana will spread to more states, remarks that would cause a shudder in any one. The communal clashes unfolding in Haryana's Nuh and Gurugram are planned and state-aided. BJP will go to any lengths to win the 2024 elections. Neither the attack on the Ram Temple nor the war with Pakistan can be ruled out ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Satyapal Malik makes this prediction on the basis of being witness to the experience of the Pulwama incident in 2019 as the Jammu and Kashmir Governor. Evidence is emerging that communal hatred is about to flow through its most heinous and violent channels in the country. Innocent statements, or political observations or even the most reprehensible crimes of any one bearing a Muslim name, will be used for exercise of this hatred. Not only the regions fostering of Hindutva fascism, in Kerala too, where the BJP has no power, is not free from it. Even in Kerala, which pretends to be enlightened, the fire of hate politics spreads from heart to heart with remarkable speed. Streets are evolving into places of fiery sloganeering and processions. Post-renaissance Keralite will become a synonym for hypocrisy if everything is ignored by accounting for them as natural.