Viral video leakage before monsoon session prima facie conspiracy: Amit Shah

The Union home ministry has told the Supreme Court that seven cases connected to the ethnic violence in Manipur — including the May 4 assault of two women by a mob, a viral video of which sparked an outcry — have been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and requested the top court to shift these trials outside the strife-torn state, home minister Amit Shah said on Thursday.

Briefing the media in details about the genesis of Kuki-Meitei conflict since the 1990s to the present situation in Manipur, Home Minister Amit Shah said that the videographer of the viral video involving hapless Kuki women has been arrested and the mobile from which he had taken the shots has been seized to unearth what prima facie appears to be a conspiracy to embarrass the Modi government on the eve of Monsoon session of Parliament. The police have registered FIR in respect of two other viral videos, which are being circulated on social media to aggravate the situation in Manipur, as they have been found to be from incidents in Myanmar in 2022.

“Six cases have already been sent to CBI, and the seventh is on its way. We want, for the sake of impartiality, trials in these cases to be held outside the state of Manipur,” Shah said. Three other cases have been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the home minister said.

Earlier in the day, the Union government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, informing the apex court that the viral video case was handed to CBI and asking the top court to shift the trial in the case out of the state. The Supreme Court is the only authority that can transfer trials out of a particular state.

At least 147 people have died and 40,000 displaced by ethnic clashes that have roiled Manipur since May 3, virtually portioning the state between the dominant Meitei community that lives in the plains and constitutes 53% of the state’s population, and the tribal Kuki group, which lives in the hill districts and makes up 16% of the state.

Shah said that the authorities arrested the videographer of the May 4 clip that showed men — a first information report (FIR) later identified them as members of Meitei groups — hooting and applauding while stripping two Kuki women and forcing them to parade naked. The mobile phone that was used to take the shots had prima facie revealed a conspiracy to embarrass the government on the eve of the monsoon session of Parliament, the minister added.

The monsoon session has been deadlocked over the sexual assault, with the Opposition demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak inside Parliament on the Manipur violence, and the government insisting that it was ready for a debate and that Shah will respond on the floor of the House. The Opposition has also maintained that the state government has failed in restoring law-and-order, calling for the removal of chief minister N Biren Singh.

The PM was constantly in touch with the home ministry throughout, and, at times, spoke to Shah three times a day, said people aware of the developments.

Shah clarified that neither him nor intelligence agencies had any clue about the May 4 video, and said that strictest action will be taken against the culprits, and others accused in the 6,065 FIRs filed by the state police. Neither the army nor the police were present when the May 4 video was shot, he said.

Police have registered FIRs in two other cases involving viral videos that are being circulated on social media to aggravate the situation in Manipur but where the actual incidents occurred in Myanmar in 2022.

Shah said Indian security forces formed a buffer zone between the Meitei and Kuki communities with a unified command under security adviser Kuldiep Singh, who is handling the law-and-order situation on a day-to-day basis.

At least a dozen round of talks have taken place separately with the two communities using credible interlocutors, he added.

With the Centre directly involved in defusing the situation, Shah said that 72% of state government employees had returned to work, and 82% students were back in school. The Union and state civil services exams were also held in the state recently, Shah said, adding that the law-and-order situation was largely under control and that he hoped peace would return to the state soon.

The home minister said that though a Manipur high court order on scheduled tribe (ST) status to the Meiteis had sparked ethnic clashes, there was no communal violence reported from the state. He also made it clear that the government will move the Supreme Court on ST status to Meiteis, there will be no move to bring back the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to new areas in Manipur.

He said biometric data was being taken of all those Kukis who entered the state from Myanmar, and after the completion of the survey by December 2023, all names will be put in a “negative list” so that they cannot get Indian identity cards.

The minister pointed out that four major ethnic clashes involving Kukis had taken place in the 1990s when the Congress was in power at both the Centre and in the state — the Naga-Kuki clash in 1993, the Kuki-Paite clash in 1997-1998, the Meitei-Pangal clash in May 1993, and the Kuki-Tamil conflict in 1995.

Shah stayed in strife-torn Manipur for three days and met 41 groups, and junior minister Nityanand Rai was in the state from May 25 to June 17 to monitor the violence in Imphal, Churachandpur, Moreh, and Kangpokpi.

“Through the violent 1990s in Manipur under the Congress regime, only minister of state for home Rajesh Pilot replied to Parliament, and he spent a mere three-and-a-half hours in the state. When once, in 2011, an MP asked for the government to debate on Manipur clashes, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh walked out of the House,” Shah said.

He said that the government was only answerable to the public and Parliament, not to the Congress as the party had taken 14 days to send paramilitary personnel to quell violence in the state in 1993.

Shah also said that there was no restriction for anyone to travel to Manipur and that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was only stopped from travelling via road as the security forces were unsure about the situation ahead. He said that Gandhi was taken by helicopter as he did not give an undertaking that he wanted to travel on road against the advice of the security forces.

The minister said he had no options but to reach out to the public via the media as the Opposition was not interested in any debate in Parliament. He said with the railways reaching Manipur within months of its being planned, the prices of food, petrol and essential commodities had cooled, and were comparable to Delhi now.

“Manipur suffered blockades of 149 continuous days with petrol selling at ₹240 and LPG at ₹1,900 under the Congress regime. We will not allow the violence to spread to other states bordering Manipur and any insurgency or extremism will be dealt with iron hand,” Shah said.