Meitei Alliance slams ‘divisive approach’, calls for truth and accountability

Marking the third anniversary of the May 3, 2023 disturbances, the Meitei Alliance today called for truth, accountability and a sustainable peace process in Manipur, stating that the crisis continued to reflect deep-rooted structural and political issues.
In a press statement, the Alliance said the state had witnessed prolonged communal unrest since May 2023, with cycles of violence between Kuki and Meitei groups leading to hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries and the displacement of nearly one lakh people. It added that the violence had caused extensive damage to property and severely disrupted economic activities and movement.
The Alliance stated that public understanding of the conflict had been shaped by misleading narratives that narrowly linked the outbreak of violence to opposition against the Meitei demand for Scheduled Tribe status following observations by the Manipur High Court. It maintained that such interpretations ignored deeper historical, political and socio-economic factors.
It further said the conflict was often reduced to binary framings such as hill versus valley or tribal versus non-tribal, which obscured its complexity. The Alliance also alleged that portrayals of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government as favouring Meitei interests overlooked, in its view, both the presence of tribal legislators and the government’s failure to address concerns of Meitei victims.
Placing the unrest in a broader context, the Alliance cited uneven development, corruption, demographic pressures and marginalisation as contributing factors. It criticised the government for failing to ensure adequate protection of lives and property, stating that this had led to cycles of self-defence and retaliation.
Reiterating its position, the Alliance called for preserving Manipur’s territorial integrity, stricter regulation of demographic influx, action against narcotics and support for displaced persons. It urged all communities to remain united and hold the government accountable for restoring peace.