EU parliament alarmed by violence in India’s Manipur state

STRASBOURG: The EU parliament on Thursday urged India to end violence and protect minorities in the country’s northeastern Manipur state, criticising “nationalistic rhetoric” it said was adding to tensions.

It came as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began a two-day visit to France, where he will attend the traditional Bastille Day military parade as guest of honour.

MEPs expressed concern over clashes between Manipur’s majority Meitei, who are mostly Hindus and live in and around the state capital Imphal, and the mainly Christian Kuki tribe in the surrounding hills.

The EU parliament said that the violence has “left at least 120 people dead, 50,000 displaced and over 1,700 houses and 250 churches destroyed”.

MEPs called out “nationalistic rhetoric” and the parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday urging Indian authorities to “promptly halt the ethnic and religious violence and to protect all religious minorities”.

The Kuki community had protested Meitei demands for reserved public job quotas and college admissions as a form of affirmative action.

This also stoked long-held fears among the Kuki that the Meitei might also be allowed to acquire land in areas currently reserved for tribal groups.

The resolution noted that “intolerance towards minority communities has contributed to the current violence and that there have been concerns about politically motivated, divisive policies that promote Hindu majoritarianism in the area.”

“The Manipur state government has also shut down internet connections and severely hindered reporting by the media, while security forces have been implicated in the recent killings, something that has further increased distrust in the authorities,” it said.

It called for independent investigations and a lifting of internet shutdowns.

It added that “human rights must be at the heart of the partnership between the European Union and India, including in trade relations”.

MEP Pierre Larrouturou, the text’s chief negotiator, said the local government of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was “fanning the flames of conflict”.

“By authorizing the armed forces to fire on civilians and cutting off Internet services, the BJP is using the local violence to further discriminate against non-Hindu minorities”, he said.

Larrouturou called Modi’s invitation to the parade in Paris “an affront not only to India’s minority communities, journalists and human rights defenders, but also to India as a democracy”.

Manipur is part of India’s remote northeast, a region linked to the rest of the country by a narrow land corridor.