By: MC Birla Meetei
As the crisis in Manipur continues after the most violent peace rally in the world – the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023 – to mutilate the innocent civilians and displace the hapless victims to refugee camps, Mr. Modi’s global sprees continue undiminished. In his previous rule of 2014 to 2019, he might have struck a good record of visits to most of the countries of the world. After slowing down his foreign tour due to Covid 19 during his second tenure, Mr. Modi has all began his excursion abroad without any care for munching a word for the burning Manipur. India’s foreign policy seems to have taken India’s image to higher levels depicting Mr. Modi as one of the great leaders of the world and India as the Champion of Democracy.
Over the years, the global community has been monitoring democratic freedoms and human rights situation in India. Many small authoritarian nations are tying up with India for trade and strategic concerns. With India becoming a booming economy and a military power in the South East Asian Region, western democracies like the United States and France have been busy establishing strategic partnership with India for economic–political reasons underestimating the human rights conditions in India and the plight of oppressed nationalities like Manipur.
India’s policy of non-Alignment earned great accolades from the western world with the western media and institutions stood unaware of the internal political situations in India. Right from Nehru’s Diplomacy down to Manmohan Singh’s Economic Liberalisation, nations all over the world was not so critical about the internal political situations in India. Now with the Saffron Diplomacy at New Delhi, countries like the US and France are rolling out the red carpet for Mr. Modi amidst huge protests in these countries for his silence over the ethnic crisis in Manipur and the rise of right-wing politics in India.
The recent excursions of Mr. Modi to America and France to boost up diplomatic relations received stark resolutions from the European Parliament for not resolving the Manipur crisis in time and US’s intention of building up a base in this hot geo-political region in the name of helping India resolving the Manipur crisis. But many courageous analysts remain undeterred to come out with India’s hidden record of human rights violations, partisan politics towards minorities and the suppression of democratic movement in Kashmir and the north-east India in this era of cyber warfare that put the whole world at the stroke of a keypad. Here, the Chanakya’s of the North Block busted out in anger not to interfere in the internal affairs of India, save for the irresistible voice of Pakistan over the failure of holding the 1948 Referendum on Kashmir.
In the US, Mr. Modi felt nauseating to answer volley of questions from the Wall Street journal about discrimination against minorities in India in the backdrop of America’s making of India to be its next ally in South Asia, replacing Pakistan and the speculation of adding India to the so-called ‘NATO plus five’ arrangement, where the United States is able to transfer with as little bureaucratic interference as possible defence equipment in a very strong way.
Mr. Modi was occupied with visiting the Odisha train accident site in Odisha’s Balasore and dialling home minister from Paris to inquire about the flood situation in New Delhi. It is good that he showed such concern. Why was no such call made when he was away in the US when Manipur was burning. Not an iota of expression of pain, grief and anguish! No appeal for peace, harmony and reconciliation! His behaviour on Manipur is shockingly bizarre where the innocent unarmed civilians are let loose to confront the duo of heavily armed Kuki militants and narco-terrorists that have been terrorising the innocent civilians by burning down more than 7000 houses, thousands of temples and churches and government offices, looting public property and banks, burning an old Meitei woman alive, killing cows and poultry. Mr. Modi is a rare species of prime ministers in the world. Mr. Modi must enter into Guinness Book of World Records for his ability to remain in complete mute for 70 days when his Manipur has been burning since May 3, 2023 with severe violations of human rights and international humanitarian law unchained by Kuki terrorism.