By – Amar Yumnam
In a recent piece, I had raised the issue of playing geopolitics in a peculiar way within a country whereas the global understanding is between or among nations. In another piece, I had raised the imperative for putting policies in place to recover and revive the civilisation process sooner. Now that opportunity to move from bad towards good has gone. This establishes two facts on contemporary Manipur: I. The prevailing political leaders of Manipur – particularly the CM and the HM – have capability weaknesses. No thought for social improvement would emerge from them. II. This incapability naturally creates the space for Federal Political authorities to play geopolitics freely.
The manner and method of killing the six persons are but cannibalism at its height. No society would ever forget that phenomenon though progressive engagements may make them move their thinking from good to greatness. The progressive engagement cannot have any vacuum for governance inaction for shared social advancements. Further, these actions should be evolved with appreciation of the two dimensions of Justice – Social Justice and Criminal Justice. The prevailing circumstances demand the state prove for non-tolerance of Criminality. Fast addressal of Criminal Justice is paramount for creation of conditions for Social Justice. In a region where the strength of the society lies in social sector competitiveness, time is critical in the fast unfolding of AI innovations. Education is in a debilitating mess today in the land – the Vice Chancellor in Charge of Manipur University gets her time taken to improve the inherited mess. The DM University can never restore the old prestige of the DM College with a person of clerical experience as the present VC. Now we have had the information of calling 56 candidates to select a single VC of Manipur University.
So while social sector around couple the inefficiencies of the CM and HM, the relapse to scenarios of house burning and attacks on places neighbouring military camps with the sepoys enjoying the sights by standing quiet say something. Here we may recall to what happened to the Bourbon dynasty in France in this year of the United States completing 250 years. “Some of the most important lessons, however, do not come from the American experience in the War of Independence. We should turn our attention instead to Bourbon France, the dominant great power in 18th-century Europe – but a dynasty in decline. France was America’s vital ally in the war, providing a military lifeline when the prospects for George Washington’s fledgling insurgency looked dim. Together, coalition forces achieved an extraordinary victory, but France ended up paying a very high price. While the United States today owes France a debt of gratitude, the French experience is also a cautionary tale. France’s strategic prowess was undeniable, but it masked deeper problems in French grand strategy.” The Bourbons won over Europe with their military power, but they did not have a plan for the next – grand strategy – and ultimately leading to their decline.
The point I am emphasising is that the happenings in the first ten days of July 2026 reveal the design of the political powers that be at the core of Bharat pretty well. There were opportunities for getting peace and the civilisational brightness of Manipur restored. The “Bourbon Trap” is trying to be avoided in the design being applied to Manipur. Unlike the Bourbons, the two components are very prudently applied. First, there would be a large presence of the military personnel to display to the world that attempts are in place to control the situation. Second, the Home Minister of Bharat has recently told a group of Church leaders in Delhi that “the ongoing tension in Manipur is an ethnic conflict, and it should not be given a communal angle’.
While the design has been public experience for quite some time, the Grand Design has been put in a concealed way. The components this are: A. Ensure that the inter-ethnic killings and disturbances continue in one form or the other. B. The killings should abolish any atmosphere of anyone having the capacity to raise issues of human rights established on the basis of terrible experiences of the World War II. C. The inter-ethnic conflicts should be able to do away with the pride of historical legacy of Manipur’s civilisation.
Assuming that both the design and the grand design are vigorously continued as now and the civilisational properties of Manipur are completely destroyed, what would be the gain of India? As I have been emphasising, the Grand Strategy would never be fruitful for Manipur’s core strength of Social Justice is very Robust. Mind you, it was a young Manipuri scientist who recently gave to the world a 300 billion years old galaxy, the Loktak.
