New Delhi: A group of retired civil servants have said that the ethnic conflict in Manipur threatens not just to tear apart the social fabric of the state but calls into question the “very spirit of harmony and fraternity that is the foundation of India’s ‘unity in diversity’”.
The open statement by the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), released on August 6, is signed by more than 100 former civil servants. It accused the Manipur state government and the state police of dereliction of their fundamental duty to protect the life and property of citizens.
“This has created the conditions for a complete breakdown of law and order, with a deliberately orchestrated and targeted carnage that has included large scale arson, lynching, collective rape, vandalism, looting, mob violence and obstruction of central security forces from carrying out their duties, followed by armed attacks and retaliation by both communities,” the statement says.
The “total failure” of the state is evident in the raiding of police armouries, which has allowed people to loot around 4,500 weapons and an estimated 5 lakh rounds of ammunition, the statement says. Such looting is unimaginable and without precedent in India, the signatories added.
For the Union government, the “immediate priority” must be to provide a healing touch through relief and rehabilitation measures, compensation and other assistance, CCG said. The statement adds that the “underlying causes” of the conflict “need to be objectively identified and addressed within the bounds of constitutional parameters”.
The former civil servants urged the Union government to impose President’s Rule in Manipur; provide relief and rehabilitation measures; and take severe punitive action against individuals and groups intent on fomenting unrest.
The full statement and the list of signatories are reproduced below.
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CCG OPEN STATEMENT ON MANIPUR: MANIPUR NEEDS THE HEALING TOUCH
6 August 2023
The Constitutional Conduct Group, a group of former civil servants firmly committed to the Constitution of India, and not affiliated to any political party, notes with the greatest concern the total breakdown of the rule of law and constitutional values in the state of Manipur since early May 2023. What started as a protest by the Kuki-Zo community against the decision of the Manipur High Court, directing the state government to recommend to the Government of India the grant of Scheduled Tribe status to the majority Meitei community, has since snowballed into a dangerous, internecine ethnic conflict that threatens not just to tear apart the social fabric of Manipur but calls into question the very spirit of harmony and fraternity that is the foundation of India’s “unity in diversity”.
We wish to strongly highlight the dereliction of their fundamental duty by the Manipur state government and the state police in protecting the life and property of their citizens. This has created the conditions for a complete breakdown of law and order, with a deliberately orchestrated and targeted carnage that has included large scale arson, lynching, collective rape, vandalism, looting, mob violence and obstruction of central security forces from carrying out their duties, followed by armed attacks and retaliation by both communities. These atrocities have taken place under a double-edged internet ban, lifted only partially on July 25, that has prevented their horror and scale from coming out earlier, while also providing grist to rumour-mongering and spread of fake news. This total failure of the state has allowed the raiding of police armouries by perpetrators of the violence, reportedly resulting in around 4,500 weapons of varying sophistication and an estimated 5 lakh rounds of ammunition being looted, which is continuing even to the present day. Such looting is unimaginable and without precedent anywhere in India.
What lends credence to the charge of the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Biren Singh, being partisan in his approach to tackling the tragedy is his demonisation and targeting of one community as ‘illegal migrants’, ‘poppy cultivators’, ‘encroachers’, ‘narco-terrorists’ and ‘terrorists’. These “dog whistles”, which tend to smear an entire community, have served to excite the passions of the majority community to which the Chief Minister belongs. A high constitutional functionary, like the Chief Minister, is expected to restore the rule of law and take steps to cool inflamed passions, rather than stoke them further. The failure to take strong action against militant organisations of the Meitei community, the Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, which openly issue threats of “annihilation” and “blowing up” of the tribal Kuki-Zo minority, or the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), which advocates a “Manipuri national war against Chin-Kuki narco-terrorism” and the arming of civilians, only seems to confirm fears about the partisan approach of the state administration; the same applies to the approach of the law enforcement authorities of Manipur state to the aggressive actions of the Meira Paibis, which include their preventing the army from apprehending those engaged in violent activities.
What causes us even deeper anguish, as former civil servants who have dealt with surcharged law and order situations in the course of our careers, has been the largely passive role that the union government has played in this entire imbroglio. What was required at the very onset of the violence in May 2023 was the imposition of President’s Rule, given the abject failure of the state government to function in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. However, instead of invoking Article 356 of the Constitution to impose President’s Rule, a Security Adviser to the state and a new Director General of Police from the cadre of a neighbouring state were appointed, and a Unified Command constituted, all reporting to the Government of Manipur, headed by the Chief Minister. Apart from the visit to Manipur by the Union Home Minister end May-early June 2023, when he met with different sections of society, there has been no active political involvement of the centre in establishing peace between the opposing communities.
The union government also lost a golden opportunity to involve the opposition parties in trying to arrive at a political solution to the problem. Political expediency has won out: we are witness to the spectacle of a non-functioning parliament at a time of crisis, with the Prime Minister making no statement in Parliament on the Manipur crisis, which would enable the initiation of a dialogue on the issue.
We are even more appalled at the approach of the union government to the ghastly events of the stripping and parading naked of two women, the alleged gangrape of one of them and the murder of two male members, all of the same family, on May 4. While expressing his outrage over the incident, outside Parliament rather than on the floor of either House, the Prime Minister seemed to draw an equivalence between this incident in Manipur and other incidents in states like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, though the incidents are not at all comparable. There was no explanation of how his government and the Manipur state government were blissfully unaware of this heinous incident despite the filing of an FIR over two months ago.
We would like to bring to the union government’s notice that the May 4 incident (along with other such similar incidents of sexual violence against women during the last three months in Manipur) represent the disgraceful phenomenon of Conflict Related Sexual Violence. The intent of the perpetrators of this violence and their instigators is to use womens’ bodies for signalling dominance. Failure to nip such perverted tendencies in the bud can lead to escalation in conflict and make reconciliation difficult.
While the Union Home Minister, during his visit to Manipur, announced the setting up of a panel headed by a retired High Court judge to investigate the reasons for the violence and to identify those behind the violence, this will not suffice to heal the wounds that have been caused by the ongoing violence and the severe trust deficit between the two communities, as well as the lack of confidence of the minority Kuki community in the impartial conduct of the state government and its police force. The nonpartisan and positive role played by the army, the Assam Rifles and central paramilitary forces, which has been appreciated, indicates that there is need to continue with the deployment of these forces in the buffer zones between the two communities, to forestall offensive attacks .
The immediate priority is to provide a healing touch to the affected persons of both communities. The lethargic relief measures taken by the state government have been very inadequate. Effective relief and rehabilitation measures as well as adequate compensation need to be provided to all affected individuals/families to enable them to rebuild their lives. These should include: (i) providing suitable shelters to the affected, either in public buildings or in requisitioned private premises, with proper hygiene and security, for as long as a return to their homes is not feasible; (ii) providing free food supplies for those in the relief camps and free PDS rations for internally displaced people residing elsewhere ; (iii) starting MNREGA works that could provide income to those affected; (iv) providing childcare, health, trauma care and education services that would meet the needs of those in the relief camps, especially mothers and children, including newborns (v) in the medium term, providing assistance for rebuilding damaged houses and other public premises.
The underlying causes of the ongoing mayhem in Manipur need to be objectively identified and addressed within the bounds of constitutional parameters. Unsubstantiated charges and dangerous brinkmanship by all parties, and grave disruptions of the social fabric of Manipur, as well as sustained violence, could resonate and spill over not only into neighbouring states but also across international borders, where ethnic bonds exist. This would be a recipe for unimaginable strife which will not leave the rest of India unscathed.
We, therefore, urge the Government of India to take the following actions at the earliest:
1) Impose President’s Rule in Manipur and appoint, as Advisers to the Governor, experienced former administrators and police officers who have knowledge of the region and can empathetically interact with the local populace. Every effort should be made to restore the trust of all sections of the citizenry in the local administration.
2) Provide relief and rehabilitation measures as well as compensation to affected individuals/families in a nonpartisan manner, with the aim of bringing back normalcy at the earliest.
3) Take severe punitive action against individuals and groups intent on fomenting unrest, including bringing to justice all the instigators and perpetrators of incidents of violence since the beginning of May, firmly checking hate speech, rounding up looted arms and ammunition and putting an end to offensive attacks against other communities. The message needs to firmly go out that no attempt by any non-state organisation to take the law into its hands will be tolerated.
We earnestly entreat the Government of India as well as other stakeholders not to let issues of prestige and political expediency inform actions, when the imperatives of both internal peace and external security warrant mature responses. We must all realise that if India loses, no one wins.
SATYAMEVA JAYATE
Constitutional Conduct Group (113 signatories, as at pages 4-7 below)
| 1 | Anita Agnihotri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, GoI |
| 2 | V.S. Ailawadi | IAS (Retd.) | Former Vice Chairman, Delhi Development Authority |
| 3 | Anand Arni | RAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 4 | G. Balachandhran | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 5 | Vappala Balachandran | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 6 | Gopalan Balagopal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 7 | Chandrashekar Balakrishnan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Coal, GoI |
| 8 | Sushant Baliga | Engineering Services (Retd.) | Former Additional Director General, Central PWD, GoI |
| 9 | Rana Banerji | RAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 10 | T.K. Banerji | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Union Public Service Commission |
| 11 | Sharad Behar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 12 | Aurobindo Behera | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha |
| 13 | Madhu Bhaduri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Portugal |
| 14 | K.V. Bhagirath | IFS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, Indian Ocean Rim Association, Mauritius |
| 15 | Pradip Bhattacharya | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Development & Planning and Administrative Training Institute, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 16 | Nutan Guha Biswas | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Police Complaints Authority, Govt. of NCT of Delhi |
| 17 | Meeran C Borwankar | IPS (Retd.) | Former DGP, Bureau of Police Research and Development, GoI |
| 18 | Ravi Budhiraja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI |
| 19 | Sundar Burra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 20 | Maneshwar Singh Chahal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary, Home, Govt. of Punjab |
| 21 | R. Chandramohan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary, Transport and Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi |
| 22 | K.M. Chandrasekhar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Cabinet Secretary, GoI |
| 23 | Rachel Chatterjee | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh |
| 24 | Kalyani Chaudhuri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 25 | Gurjit Singh Cheema | IAS (Retd.) | Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Govt. of Punjab |
| 26 | F.T.R. Colaso | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Karnataka & former Director General of Police, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir |
| 27 | Anna Dani | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 28 | Vibha Puri Das | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI |
| 29 | P.R. Dasgupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI |
| 30 | Pradeep K. Deb | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI |
| 31 | Nitin Desai | Former Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI | |
| 32 | M.G. Devasahayam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana |
| 33 | Sushil Dubey | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Sweden |
| 34 | A.S. Dulat | IPS (Retd.) | Former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Minister’s Office, GoI |
| 35 | K.P. Fabian | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Italy |
| 36 | Suresh K. Goel | IFS (Retd.) | Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI |
| 37 | S. Gopal | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, GoI |
| 38 | H.S. Gujral | IFoS (Retd.) | Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab |
| 39 | Meena Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI |
| 40 | Ravi Vira Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India |
| 41 | Wajahat Habibullah | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, GoI and former Chief Information Commissioner |
| 42 | Deepa Hari | IRS (Resigned) | |
| 43 | Vivek Harinarain | IAS (Retd.) | Govt. of Tamil Nadu |
| 44 | Siraj Hussain | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI |
| 45 | Kamal Jaswal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI |
| 46 | Naini Jeyaseelan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI |
| 47 | Najeeb Jung | IAS (Retd.) | Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi |
| 48 | Sanjay Kaul | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka |
| 49 | Brijesh Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI |
| 50 | Ish Kumar | IPS (Retd.) | Former DGP (Vigilance & Enforcement), Govt. of Telangana and former Special Rapporteur, National Human Rights Commission |
| 51 | Sudhir Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal |
| 52 | Subodh Lal | IPoS (Resigned) | Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI |
| 53 | Sunil Lal | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Brazil and former Ambassador to Spain |
| 54 | P.M.S. Malik | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Myanmar & Special Secretary, MEA, GoI |
| 55 | Harsh Mander | IAS (Retd.) | Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 56 | Amitabh Mathur | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 57 | Aditi Mehta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan |
| 58 | Shivshankar Menon | IFS (Retd.) | Former Foreign Secretary and Former National Security Adviser |
| 59 | Sonalini Mirchandani | IFS (Resigned) | GoI |
| 60 | Malay Mishra | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Hungary |
| 61 | Sunil Mitra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI |
| 62 | Avinash Mohananey | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Sikkim |
| 63 | Geetmala Mohananey | IRS (Retd.) | Former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, GoI |
| 64 | Satya Narayan Mohanty | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission |
| 65 | Jugal Mohapatra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Rural Development, GoI |
| 66 | Deb Mukharji | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal |
| 67 | Shiv Shankar Mukherjee | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom |
| 68 | Gautam Mukhopadhaya | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Myanmar |
| 69 | Ramesh Narayanaswami | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of NCT of Delhi |
| 70 | P. Joy Oommen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh |
| 71 | Amitabha Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI |
| 72 | Mira Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former State Election Commissioner, West Bengal |
| 73 | Maxwell Pereira | IPS (Retd.) | Former Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi |
| 74 | Alok Perti | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI |
| 75 | G.K. Pillai | IAS (Retd.) | Former Home Secretary, GoI |
| 76 | R. Poornalingam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI |
| 77 | Jayant Prasad | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Nepal |
| 78 | Rajesh Prasad | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to the Netherlands |
| 79 | Rajdeep Puri | IRS (Resigned) | Former Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, GoI |
| 80 | T.R. Raghunandan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, GoI |
| 81 | N.K. Raghupathy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI |
| 82 | V.P. Raja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission |
| 83 | K. Ramanujam | IPS (Retd.) | Former Chief Information Commissioner, Tamil Nadu |
| 84 | M. Rameshkumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal |
| 85 | K. Sujatha Rao | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI |
| 86 | M.Y. Rao | IAS (Retd.) | |
| 87 | Satwant Reddy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI |
| 88 | Vijaya Latha Reddy | IFS (Retd.) | Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI |
| 89 | Julio Ribeiro | IPS (Retd.) | Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former Ambassador to Romania |
| 90 | Aruna Roy | IAS (Resigned) | |
| 91 | A.K. Samanta | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal |
| 92 | Deepak Sanan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh |
| 93 | G.V. Venugopala Sarma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha |
| 94 | N.C. Saxena | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI |
| 95 | Ardhendu Sen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 96 | Abhijit Sengupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI |
| 97 | Aftab Seth | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Japan |
| 98 | Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFoS (Retd.) | Former MD, State Forest Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat |
| 99 | Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia |
| 100 | Navrekha Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Indonesia |
| 101 | Avay Shukla | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary (Forests & Technical Education), Govt. of Himachal Pradesh |
| 102 | Sujatha Singh | IFS (Retd.) | Former Foreign Secretary, GoI |
| 103 | Tara Ajai Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka |
| 104 | Tirlochan Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI |
| 105 | A.K. Srivastava | IAS (Retd.) | Former Administrative Member, Madhya Pradesh Administrative Tribunal |
| 106 | Parveen Talha | IRS (Retd.) | Former Member, Union Public Service Commission |
| 107 | Anup Thakur | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission |
| 108 | P.S.S. Thomas | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission |
| 109 | Geetha Thoopal | IRAS (Retd.) | Former General Manager, Metro Railway, Kolkata |
| 110 | Jawed Usmani | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh & former Chief Information Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh |
| 111 | Ashok Vajpeyi | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi |
| 112 | Ramani Venkatesan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 113 | Rudi Warjri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica |