On September 2, the Editors Guild of India (EGI) released a report of its ‘Fact-Finding Mission on Media’s Reportage of the Ethnic Violence in Manipur’. The report called the violence one-sided and framed Meiteis as the culprits whereas the Kukis as the victims. To collect the on-ground details, the EGI stationed as many as three representatives in the Meitei-majority areas. The appointees claimed that they had representative statements that confirmed that the media was playing a ‘partisan role’.
“There are clear indications that the leadership of the state became partisan during the conflict. It should have avoided taking sides in the ethnic conflict but it failed to do its duty as a democratic government,” the report had said.
Notably, the report endorses the allegations made by the Kukis against Meiteis and makes no attempt to strike a balance. The report targets the state government and accuses the Chief Minister N Biren Singh, of partisanship and fanning ethnic tensions. It also accuses the Union government for not dismissing the democratically-elected state government and mirrors the allegations made by the Congress and other anti-BJP parties.
FIR against the EGI
Following the report, two FIRs have been lodged against the president and three members of the Editors Guild of India (EGI), accusing the body of ‘trying to instigate more clashes’ in the state. The accused are namely EGI president Seema Mustafa and the three members of the ‘fact-finding mission’: Bharat Bhushan, Seema Guha, and Sanjay Kapoor.
These FIRs have been registered under various sections of the IPC 153-A, 200, 295, 298, 500, 505(1)(b), 505(2)), 120-B primarily relating to defamation, promoting enmity between different groups, criminal conspiracy and instigating people.
The All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU) and the Editors’ Guild Manipur (EGM) have slammed the report and threatened legal action against the EGI.The AMWJU and the EGM have issued a detailed rebuttal of the EGI report and termed it as an exercise to generate sympathy for the Kukis while demonising the Meiteis as well as the Union and state governments.
Notably, Editors Guild of India (EGI) has moved the Supreme Court against the first information report (FIR) lodged by Manipur police against EGI’s fact-finding team and its president over a report on the recent riots in the north-eastern State.
The matter was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra by Senior Advocate Shyam Divan.
Here’s why the report by EGI is called ‘politically motivated’
- The EGI was briefed to investigate if the media reportage of the violence was biased and divisive, as reported by many, however, the report examined the causes of ethnic clashes in Manipur going way beyond their motive.
- It has been reported and established that a large number of Chin-Kuki people have migrated from parts of Myanmar to Manipur, leading to the demographic imbalance. The report by EGI dismisses any immigration.
- The report frames allegations against the Chief Minister of the state without any concrete proof. It says, “seems to have facilitated Meiteis’ anger against Kukis “through several seemingly partisan statements and policy measures”
- The report claims that the state government initiated an eviction drive clearing forest and mountain areas just to target the Kuki-Zo community. Countering the EGI’s report, the AMWJU and EGM have pointed out, records of evictions available with the state forest department show that from October 2015 to April 2023. As per the data, 143 Meitei families and 137 Pangal (Meitei Muslim) families evicted for encroaching on reserved and protected forests, and only 59 Kuki families were evicted during this period.
- The report accuses the state government of withdrawing from the tripartite Suspension of Operations (SOO) and lifting the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (or AFSPA) from the (Meitei-dominated) Imphal Valley to incite violence against Kuki’s. For a matter of fact, the SOO is still in force as the withdrawal appeal was never pursued.
- The report says, Biren Singh’s government has painted Kuki’s as villains as they harvest poppy. It says, “Biren Singh government’s focus has targeted poppy cultivation to the detriment of other components of the drug trade”.
- The report very conveniently overlooks the fact that it was the Kukis who started the violence in the valley state. Notably, the clashes were triggered followed by attacks on Meiteis living in Kuki-dominated Churachandpur on May 3. EGI report says that the May 3 rally by Kukis in Churachandpur was “peaceful”.
- The report claims that all the Churches belonging to the Kuki-Zo community were destroyed in the attack. It ignored the attacks on temples and other religious places launched by Kukis.
- The EGI report says that the Meiteis looted police armouries in order to gain access to weapons to attack Kukis.
- The EGI report blames the Union government for not imposing President’s Rule and dismissing the democratically-elected state government or invoking Article 355 to take over the law and order machinery of the state.
AMWJU and EGM give strong rebuttal to EGI’s report
The AMWJU and EGM issued a statement in which it has categorically said that the EGI’s report is factually incorrect.
- In the statement, AMWJU and EGM stated, EGI claim Meitei’s were the initiators of the riots on May 3. It is surprising how they were able to establish this in four days even though there is a Supreme Court-appointed fact-finding committee looking into this same matter and are still not able to come out with the entire details yet though it began work on August 7, 2023.
- The EGI also refers to a certain Hill Area Committee Act 1972, but no such Act is in existence. The last reserved forest declared in Manipur was in 1990 according to Manipur Forest Department records. GI also stated that these declarations were meant to evict Kuki villages, but records of eviction by the Government available with the Manipur Forest Department show otherwise. From October 2015 to April 2023, houses evicted from “reserved forest” and “protected forest” show there were 59 Kuki houses, 143 Meitei houses, 137 Meitei Pangal (Muslim) houses, 38 Naga houses, and 36 Nepali houses, totalling 413 houses. AMWJU and EGI alleged that the EGI fact-finding team did not even bother to confirm these data from the relevant authorities and instead apparently chose to depend on hearsay.
- The EGI report also claims that the State Government has withdrawn from the tripartite Suspension of Operations agreement with the Kukis. But the Suspension of Operation (Soo) agreement with all 25 groups are still intact. The EGI again did not bother to cross-check this before making its allegation. In reference to the outrageous video of Kuki women being paraded naked, it seems the EGI did not even confirm whether there were two or three women for the EGI report, two in some references and three in some other in the same breath. It also says the younger woman was raped on video. Condemning the incident once again the AMWJU and EGM said the EGI chose to dramatise the tragic episode more than what was actually in the video to suit its motivated and skewed narrative.
- Furthermore, in photo of a burning building, the caption in the EGI report identifies it is a Kuki house burning, but this is the Forest Office at Maultam at Churachandpur, torched by a Kuki mob on May 3, right in the middle of the ATSUM peace rally at about 12.15 pm, but EGI choose not to cross check it, the journalist associations of Manipur mentioned in their statement.
- The EGI in its report also claims that on the night of May 3, there was total destruction of Kuki-Zo churches, houses and other properties in Meitei-dominated areas. But the fact is that on May 3, riots in Imphal were very limited. It was in the next few days that riots intensified and spread, the statement reads. EGI in its report claims most of the newspapers and news channels in the Imphal valley took dictations from the Chief Minister’s office. AMWJU and EGM stated that this is a damaging charge but without evidence and asked EGI to prove it.
- Moreover, the journalist organisations of Manipur said that the EGI report has no reflection at all of all the material supplied to them during two-hour meetings with the AMWJU, EGM and MHJU representatives at the Manipur Press Club in Imphal. The EGI report for instance is silent on the attack on reporters by Kuki villagers after they were invited by an Indian Army commander at Henjang village near the 57 Mountain Division headquarters at Leimakhong although they were briefed of this unfortunate incident in the same meeting.
It is quite evident that the BJP-led governments in Manipur and at the Centre, as well as Meiteis, are being targeted in the EGI report. The report reflects the political prejudices and leanings of the team members as well as a significant portion of those in charge of guild affairs.
Comments