Christians slam govt move to cut water, power in India’s Manipur

Indigenous Christians in India’s strife-torn Manipur say they are worried over the state government’s move to deny power, water, and welfare schemes to “unregistered” villages in the hilly northeastern state.

Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Oct. 8 instructed the authorities not to provide essential services like water and power and benefits of various government welfare schemes to villages in the hilly districts if they are unregistered.

Though Singh did not clarify what he meant by “unregistered villages,” media reports said the chief minister was referring to villages that have emerged in the Kuki-dominated areas since 2006.
“This move is yet another attempt to target indigenous Christians who are mostly from the Kuki-Zo community, living in the state’s five hilly districts,” said a Church leader based in the capital, Imphal. He requested that his name not be revealed for security reasons.

Another church leader based in a hilly district said that many people lost their houses and businesses during the ongoing sectarian violence and took shelter in other villages.

“A few of them have set up temporary houses in other villages. If the government does not recognize them, it will be like adding insult to injury,” he said on the condition of anonymity.

Singh, a leader of the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has repeatedly blamed “illegal migrants” from neighboring civil war-hit Myanmar for the ongoing violence in the state and accused the Kuki-Zo communities of giving shelter to them.

Singh belongs to the majority Meitei community, which is at loggerheads with the predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo tribal people.“The government decision to disconnect water or electricity supply will lead to further hostilities between the warring groups,” noted the Church leader.

He said the Meiteis and the Kuki-Zo communities cannot co-exist anymore.

Among the 3.2 million people in the state, 41 percent are indigenous Kuki_zo people, mostly Christians, and the influential and wealthy Meiteis Hindus who live in the valleys account for 53 percent.

Their feud over granting tribal status to the Meitei Hindus to avail reservation benefits under India’s affirmation action policy has seen the death of nearly 230 people and the uprooting of nearly 60,000, most of them Christians.

Christians allege that the official tribal status will allow the influential Meitei community to buy land in Indigenous areas in the districts of Senapati, Tamenglong, Churachandpur, Chandel, and Ukhrul.

Christians have been seeking the resignation of Singh over his failure to contain the sectarian violence that started on May 3 last year.

This article is originally published on https://www.ucanews.com/news/christians-slam-govt-move-to-cut-water-power-in-indias-manipur/106675