“This silence is not normal”

I rise to speak about a disturbing moment in Indian history that never happened, the Manipur tragedy, which the government is trying to suppress. And it is ironic that such an important issue, which is being suppressed, is being given an opportunity to be expressed as midnight approaches.

This reminds me that in my home state, the time is two hours ahead of Delhi and we are dancing to the Delhi beat, when the time is supposed to be approaching midnight right now. People like Janu Barua and others have been demanding for years that the Northeast should have its own time zone.

Only then can you live with dignity and well-being. The priority I feel is that I have the opportunity to speak. Mr. President, I am simply trying to draw your attention to the absence of Manipur in the President’s speech.

This is not just an absence. It is the memory of a “rashtrachetna”, which excludes people. It is worth knowing that more than 60,000 people have been languishing in relief camps in miserable conditions for a year.

If anyone has studied the great partition of this subcontinent, which I have done, I was involved in a research project. We interviewed over 1,500 survivors of the 1947 partition and you are witnessing the same thing.

People are living in miserable conditions that I cannot even mention here. 60,000 people homeless is not nothing. More than two hundred people have died and the situation is close to a civil war where people are armed to the teeth and are roaming and fighting among themselves to defend their villages. The Indian state has been a mute spectator of this tragedy for the past year.

I must remind this House that every inch of Manipur is covered by a central armed force. It is one of the most militarised areas in the country, with more armed police than civilian police, in addition to the Union Armed Forces.

Despite all this, how come 60,000 people were left homeless and thousands of villages were destroyed, and our Prime Minister remained silent? Not even a word, and the presidential speech did not even mention it. And I said that this silence was not normal.

It is a reminder that many scholars have argued that there is a continuity between the colonial and postcolonial periods. Today we celebrate a day in which we begin to adopt new criminal laws that seem to reject the colonial legacy.

But as Ashish Nandy says, colonialism is a state of mind. It is a psychological phenomenon. It is a way of looking at people, the way you look at the world.

And the fact that this continuity is demonstrated by neglecting the tragedy of a State which is the 19th State of the Union. It is astonishing that I have the opportunity, as the midnight hour approaches, to resist this anguish and this pain of denial that this country has inflicted on its own citizens in the State of Manipur.

I have to ask the House these questions: Does this silence indicate to the people of the North-East and Manipur in particular that you are of no importance in the scheme of things of the Indian State?

Major Lysham Jotin, who received Ashok’s chakra while fighting a suicide bomber, was a Manipuri who received Ashok’s chakra. You are dishonoring his own state.

Major Nagom Joy Dutta, who was awarded the Vir Chakra while fighting for his country and doing his duty in the peacekeeping force in Sri Lanka in 1987. You are dishonouring this man. You are dishonouring the youth who are flying the tricolour on the international stage.

Personalities like Mary Kom, Sarita, Kunjarani and Mirabai Chanu. You say you have no importance in this country. Your state has no importance in this country.

You also say that Ratan Tiam, the cultural icon of this country, or even Shyam Sharma, have no importance in this country. If you had any concern for this state, there would have been no silence. There would have been no silence in this House or in the President’s speech.

This must be resisted. If you want to question the nationality and nationalism of the people of this state, you must understand that these people fought for the country. These people brought laurels to this country.

We are talking about the exclusion of the history of the Northeast after 75 years. This is a classic exclusion. India was an anthropological subject, not a historical subject in the eyes of the colonial forces. And today, the Northeast remains outside the history of Indian history textbooks.

That is why you treat them like others. And that is what explains the silence. And the silence on the Manipur tragedy is not unique.

This is a reflection of this general continuity of colonialism in the postcolonial. It is sad to see that a nationalist party like the BJP feels comfortable with this silence on the tragedy of Manipur.

Keep your hands on your heart and think of the 60,000 people who are in the refugee camps. And those mothers, those widows, think of them. And then you talk about nationalism. Only then will we understand what this tragedy means.

And Mr. President, pain, anger has driven a nobody like me to be a part of this temple of democracy. As a BJP Cabinet Minister, think of pain. If you hear anxiety, anguish and pain in my voice, please go back to those 60,000 people languishing in the relief camp.

Do not talk about the commemoration of partition. I will keep quiet the moment the Prime Minister opens his mouth and a nationalist party says that Manipur is a part of India and we care about the people of this state. Only then will I accept what is nationalism that is staring us in the face.

Thank you Mr. President.

Angomcha Bimol Akoijam is an Indian academic, filmmaker and politician from Imphal Valley, Manipur. He is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University and a public intellectual. He was elected to the Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament from Manipur.

Above is the transcript of the speech he delivered to the House on June 2, 2004.