8 bodies, ‘stolen’ corpse may influence Manipur outcome
CHURACHANDPUR: The dead cannot vote. But eight bodies awaiting burial for more than 500 days – and a “stolen” corpse – could play a role in deciding the outcome in some tribal assembly constituencies of Manipur.
Churachandpur and the newly-created Pherzawl districts are dominated by the Kuki-Zomi community comprising at least 15 tribes. Six assembly constituencies straddle these districts, all represented by the Congress until Vungzagin Valte resigned from his Thanlon seat to join the BJP on Wednesday.
All the MLAs have been ‘banished’ from their constituencies after Okram Ibobi Singh’s Congress government passed three bills that were viewed as antitribal. Violent protests opposing the three bills claimed nine lives, six of them allegedly in police firing, within a week.
The violence was concentrated in Churachandpur town, 60 km south of Imphal. It led to an agitation spearheaded by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the tribes.
The district, in mourning, has not heard church bells toll since. People renew wreaths on symbolic coffins outside the Churachandpur district hospital morgue and Lakma memorial ground. Posters and banners featuring the nine ‘martyrs’ are all over the town, though some have the photo of the youngest – 11-year-old Khaizamang Touthang – cut out.
The JAC blames the government for using militants to steal Khaizamang’s body and bury it in the town’s Bijang cemetery, close to where his family stays.
The state government says the JAC is trying to keep a ‘dead issue’ alive. “The three bills that apparently sparked the fire were buried when President Pranab Mukherjee did not clear them in June (2015),” home minister Gaikhangam said a few days ago.
The three bills were Protection of Manipur People bill, Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (7th Amendment) bill and the Manipur Shops and Establishments (2nd Amendment) Bill. They were passed by the state assembly after nontribal groups had demanded inner-line permit system to regulate entry of outsiders with 1951 as base year for determining such outsiders.
The tribes read the bills as an infringement on their identity, land rights and economy.
The issue of the bills and the martyrs will have a bearing on the polls, JAC’s secretary Sang Lethil said. “The people will decide keeping them in mind.”
Though Congress sniffs a BJP hand behind the ‘dead body politics’, BJP says the former is crying foul because it has sensed trouble in the hills.