Mock Drills are Redundant When Manipur lives the Real War

As Imphal witnesses another round of mock drills aimed at preparing for foreign aggression, one cannot help but question the utility, even the irony, of such exercises. The city and its people have been living through real, unrelenting violence for nearly two years. Ethnic conflict in Manipur has not merely paralleled but in many ways surpassed what any peacetime drill could simulate. From drone bombings to rocket attacks, the people of this state have already experienced the horrors of war—not hypothetically, but in their streets, their homes, their daily lives.
The current drill, reportedly conducted in the backdrop of heightened military tension between India and Pakistan, reflects a broader national concern. But for Manipur, the battle is not at the border—it is within. And it is not recent. The collapse of law and order in 2023, the displacement of thousands, the open exchange of fire between armed groups, and the inability of security forces to restore peace—all of this amounts to nothing less than a civil war-like situation. The government may continue to call it an internal disturbance, but lived reality in Manipur tells a different story.
What compounds the irony of these mock drills is their deliberate blindness to the actual violence engulfing Manipur. National security narratives emphasize preparedness for external threats, yet Manipur’s ongoing crisis, which involves external interference and arms inflows across porous borders, is consistently sidelined. High-ranking government officials themselves have acknowledged foreign involvement in the conflict. This is not speculation—it is part of the official discourse. Yet, there is a systematic refusal to recognize that the “foreign aggression” they seek to simulate is already underway in the eastern peripheries of the country.
For the residents of Imphal, this is not a drill. It is a continuation of a long, painful confrontation that has tested not only their resilience but also their faith in the Indian state. To stage a mock drill in a city where explosions, sniper attacks, and forced migrations have become disturbingly frequent is to trivialize the suffering of its people. The residents of Manipur have conducted their own live drills—learning to dive for cover during ambushes, to flee homes at a moment’s notice, to survive in overcrowded relief camps. They have trained themselves not by government instruction but by sheer necessity.
What Manipur needs now is not another mock drill to ward off an imagined threat. It needs the central government to confront the real war that is already raging in its territory. This includes acknowledging that the situation is no longer a law-and-order problem but a prolonged political and humanitarian crisis with external ramifications. It means accepting that governance has failed, that military solutions alone cannot heal the wounds, and that true resolution requires political courage, community justice, and long-overdue accountability.
The continued staging of symbolic drills, while Manipur burns, will only deepen the alienation felt by its people. It sends the message that their suffering does not merit national attention unless it fits a comfortable narrative of nationalism or external hostility. But the people of Manipur know better. They know that their pain is real, their enemy both within and beyond borders, and their survival not owed to the state’s preparedness but to their own.
If there is one message the government should take from the streets of Imphal, it is this: the war is already here, and its victims are not waiting for sirens or simulations. They are waiting for justice, recognition, and above all, peace. Until then, no drill can prepare us for what we have already endured.