Justice for Lei Engkhol cannot wait

The ongoing attempt to erase Lei Engkhol in Imphal East is not development—it is dispossession. Behind the government’s rhetoric of progress lies a brutal truth: families who have lived on their ancestral land for generations are being pushed to the margins, their existence reduced to an obstacle for expanding the Manipur High Court Complex. This is not only unjust, it is a betrayal of the very idea of democracy.
Lei Engkhol is more than a cluster of homes. It is a living community, a space where history, culture, and collective memory converge. To bulldoze this settlement in the name of state infrastructure is to strip its people of dignity and belonging. The irony could not be darker—the institution meant to defend citizens’ rights and deliver justice is being expanded by trampling upon those very rights. How can the High Court serve as a guardian of justice if its foundation is built on injustice?
The government’s actions show a shocking lack of accountability. Residents have repeatedly voiced their concerns, sought dialogue, and placed their grievances before the authorities. Yet their cries have been met with silence, indifference, or bureaucratic doublespeak. Development without consultation is not development; it is coercion. When people are uprooted without consent, without alternatives, without fair compensation or rehabilitation, it becomes state-sponsored displacement.
This struggle is not isolated to Lei Engkhol. Across Manipur—and indeed across the North East—indigenous and vulnerable communities have long borne the brunt of projects undertaken in the name of “public interest.” Whether it is roads, military camps, or government complexes, the story is the same: powerful institutions expand while powerless communities are erased. Lei Engkhol today is the face of a much larger crisis—the systematic sidelining of those who do not have the means to fight back.
Let us be clear: strengthening judicial infrastructure is important. But the question is not whether the High Court should be expanded—it is how. A government that ignores its own people, that refuses dialogue, that treats citizens as expendable, is a government that has lost sight of its constitutional duty. If justice is sacrificed at the altar of expediency, then what remains of democracy?
The residents of Lei Engkhol are not asking for charity. They are demanding justice—justice to live in peace on their land, or, if relocation is unavoidable, justice in the form of proper rehabilitation, fair compensation, and respect for their identity. Anything less is unacceptable.
Civil society must also recognize the urgency of this moment. If Lei Engkhol falls, it sets a precedent for the next village, the next community, the next vulnerable group. Silence is complicity. Citizens, rights groups, and student bodies must amplify the voices of Lei Engkhol and demand that the government halt its bulldozing mindset. The residents’ demand is not political—it is a matter of survival.
The Chief Minister may have resigned, the State may be under President’s Rule, but governance does not stop. Those in authority today have a duty to protect, not persecute, citizens. The Governor, bureaucrats, and the judiciary itself must intervene to ensure that the very values the High Court stands for—justice, fairness, equality—are upheld in practice.
Lei Engkhol is a test for all of us. Do we stand with the powerless against an unaccountable State, or do we allow development to become another name for dispossession? If we remain silent, we allow injustice to masquerade as progress. If we speak, if we resist, if we demand accountability, we remind those in power that the people are not expendable.
Justice for Lei Engkhol cannot wait. It is not simply about protecting a village—it is about defending the principle that no citizen should be erased in the name of progress. To destroy Lei Engkhol is to destroy faith in democracy itself. The people of Manipur, and indeed all who believe in justice, must rise to say: enough is enough.