The incident is so gruesome and grisly that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been compelled to break his ominous 3-month stoic silence on the situation in Manipur.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — A viral video showing two Kuki women being paraded naked by a mob in B Phainom village of Manipur’s Kangpokpi district has shaken the collective conscience of the entire country.
The incident is so gruesome and grisly that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been forced to break his ominous 3-month stoic silence on the situation in Manipur. Condemning the incidents linked to sexual atrocities in Manipur he said that “What has happened to daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven, guilty will not be spared”. He also urged all state chiefs to ensure the safety of women.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament which began on Thursday, PM Modi said, “This a shameful incident for any society…who did this and who is responsible is another issue but this has put our nation to shame. I appeal to all chief ministers to tighten law and order. Whether it is Rajasthan, Chattisgarh or Manipur…the issue of a woman’s honour is above all politics.”
Almost simultaneously, the Supreme Court ordered Centre and state government to take immediate action and apprise it of what action has been taken on the incident and posted the matter for further hearing on next Friday. “We will give little time to Govt to act, otherwise will take action if nothing is happening on the ground,” the apex court said.
“What is portrayed in the media about visuals which appeared shows gross constitutional violation and infraction of human life using women as instruments of perpetrated violence is against constitutional democracy,” the court noted.
Late on Wednesday, Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani tweeted on the video, leading to opposition leaders and commentators almost immediately questioning as to why there was a two-month gap in her knowledge of the incident.
Opposition parties squarely placed the blame on the Union government’s “inaction” and Prime Minister Modi’s “silence”.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said Modi’s “silence and inaction” have led “Manipur into anarchy”.
The Kerala unit of the Congress tweeted that the silence of the state and Union governments is “infuriating”, adding that the chief minister and home minister should be removed.
The Aam Aadmi Party said that the “inaction of the State and the Central government is painful for all the citizens of the country. We again request the intervention of the Prime Minister in Manipur. Turning a blind eye to the problem will not make it go away. The Aam Aadmi Party is ready and willing to assist in any manner as the Central Government may deem fit.”
The chief of Tipra Motha, Pradyot Manikya Deb Barma, tweeted that the “disturbing” video shows there is a total breakdown in the relationship between the two communities there. “Hate has won in Manipur,” he said.
“Attention India. The modesty of two tribal women from Manipur was outraged on 4th May. They were paraded naked, fondled and beaten in full public glare. A disturbing video taken by a perpetrator leaked and got viral today. This breaks all levels of humanity,” journalist Hoihnu Hauzel tweeted.
The viral video of the ghastly incident occurring in B Phainom village is of May 4. One of the women was gang-raped, the first information report (FIR) filed in connection with the incident says.
The video shows several men, apparently Meiteis, walking alongside the two women as they are led into some fields. It shows at least some of the men groping the women.
A zero FIR was filed by the Saikul police, in Kangpokpi district, on May 18. It was forwarded to the Nongpok Sekmai police station. While an FIR is usually restricted by jurisdiction, a zero FIR can be filed in any police station. After registering the Zero FIR, the police station transfers it to the one that has the jurisdiction – which is then supposed to convert it into a regular FIR.
The FIR has charges of rape and murder against “unknown miscreants” numbering “800-1,000”. The complaint filed against the incident claims that these men are suspected to be “members of Meitei Youth Organisations, Meetei Leepun, Kangleipak Kanba Lup, Arambai Tenggol and World Meitei Council, Schedule Tribe Demand Committee”.
The mob is accused of burning down houses in the B Phainom village and accosting a group of five people who were fleeing. There were two men and three women in the group.
According to the complaint, the group was “snatched away from the custody” of a police team from the Nongpok Sekmai police station near Toubul (Sekmai khunou) “about 2 km from Nongpok Sekmai PS and about 3 km from 33 AR Somrei Post”.
One of the men was killed immediately by the mob, which then forced all the women to strip. One woman, in her 20s, was gang-raped and the other two women escaped. When the brother of the woman who was being raped tried to stop the assault, he was also murdered.
The Manipur police said that it was making an “all-out effort” to arrest the culprits who were involved in the incident. The police said that a case of abduction, gang rape and murder was registered in relation to the incident.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), an umbrella body of tribal groups, said the “horrifying ordeal suffered by these innocent women is amplified by the perpetrators’ decision to share the video, which shows the identity of the victims, on social media”. It vehemently condemned the sickening act and demanded that the Union and state governments, apart from statutory bodies like the National Commission for Women, should take cognizance of the offence and take all necessary measures to bring justice to the culprits.
The Working Group for Naga Rights in Manipur has also released a statement, observing that it is “appalled by the unspeakable evil of the unhinged Meitei mob”
“The beastly crime committed against the innocent residents of B. Phainom village in Kangpokpi district has taken more than two months to surface to public knowledge, but the visceral hatred of the mob that reeks in its perpetration is as new, immediate, and stomach-turning as the tragic murder of the Maring Naga lady a few days ago,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Centre has issued an order to Twitter and other social media platforms, instructing them not to share the video of two women who were paraded naked that surfaced on the internet on Wednesday, media reports say.
