Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra: Rahul Gandhi Fails To Bridge Ethnic Divide Even Among His Own Party Leaders In Manipur

Despite all his tall talk of bridging the ethnic divide in trouble-torn Manipur, Congress yuvraj Rahul Gandhi could not even paper over this divide within the top ranks of his own party unit in the state at the start of his much-hyped Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. 

The yatra was flagged off from the Khongjom War Memorial Complex in Thoubal, about 33 kilometres south of state capital Imphal, on Sunday (14 January). A host of national and state-level leaders of the Congress were present at the flagoff ceremony held at the memorial, which honours martyrs of the 1891 Anglo-Manipur War. 

Rahul Gandhi, and party president Mallikarjun Kharge, delivered speeches after the ceremony criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments at the state and Centre, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for failing to resolve the ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kukis and restore peace in Manipur. 

After that, they rolled out grandly in a cavalcade of caravans, coaches and cars to Sekmai, a little over 17 km north of Imphal city. Sekmai, in Imphal West district, borders the Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi district. 

Rahul Gandhi and his huge entourage halted that night (Sunday) at the Koujengleima sports association football ground at Sekmai before resuming the yatra on Monday morning.

At the flagoff ceremony at Khongjom in the Meitei-dominated Thoubal district, almost the entire Congress leadership of the state, including former chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, state Congress chief K Meghachandra, former deputy CM and Congress Working Committee member Gaikhangam Gangmei, Congress legislators and former MLAs as well as many other state Congress functionaries were present. 

The Congress leaders present at the flagoff ceremony at Khongjom included both Meiteis and Kukis. 

But by the time the yatra reached Sekmai for the night halt, most of the Meitei leaders and party functionaries were absent. All of them had dropped out of the yatra. 

That’s because Sekmai has become a no-go zone for Meiteis. Sekmai lies next to Kangpokpi district which has become a hotbed of Kuki militants and separatists.

When the yatra resumed on Monday morning, the only Meitei leader present was state Congress president K Meghachandra. Surrounded by a strong contingent of security guards, he hoisted the party flag on Monday morning before the resumption of the yatra. 

But he also dropped out of the cavalcade once it started its journey to Kangpokpi district. Only Kuki leaders and functionaries of the party remained in the yatra. 

Not only were the Congress’ Meitei leaders and functionaries apprehensive of their personal safety in the Kuki-dominated areas of the state, they also dropped out of the yatra  in order to save themselves of certain embarrassment. 

That’s because they knew that the representatives of Kuki civil society organisations and tribal bodies who Rahul Gandhi would meet in Kangpokpi would ask him to support their demand for a separate state for Kukis. 

That is exactly what happened and the Kukis told Rahul Gandhi in no uncertain terms that they need a separate administration since they will not be able to co-exist with Meiteis any longer. Rahul Gandhi merely nodded his head and even smiled. 

Listening to such demands for a separate Kuki state by the Kukis, who are mostly illegal infiltrators (or descendants of illegal infiltrators) from Myanmar would have been deeply distressing for the Congress’ Meitei leaders. 

They (the Meitei leaders) would not have been able to reply to and counter such demands in the presence of their party scion Rahul Gandhi. Doing so would have led to acrimony and certain controversy.

That is why the Meitei leaders and functionaries in the Congress chose not to participate in the second leg of the yatra. 

A couple of Congress leaders told Swarajya that the party’s central leadership knew of the Meitei leaders’ plans to drop out of the yatra at the end of Day 1 and approved of it. The party central leadership was told by the Meitei leaders of their difficulties and security concerns when the yatra entered Kuki-dominated areas. 

But at least one senior Congress leader told Swarajya that it was the central leadership which suggested that the state’s Meitei leaders and partymen need not participate in the second leg of the yatra. 

It is learnt that some Kuki organisations had told the Congress leadership that Meiteis should not be part of the yatra while it passes through the Kuki areas of the state. The Congress central leadership accepted this demand of the Kukis and asked the Meitei state leaders to stay away from the second leg of the yatra.

But whatever be the case, the fact remains that no Meitei leader of the Congress was present in the second leg of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra when it passed through Kangpokpi and Senapati districts before entering Nagaland. 

That represents a spectacular failure on the part of Rahul Gandhi to bring Meitei and Kuki leaders of his own party together on his yatra, whose ostensible goal is to unite the country. 

“He (Rahul Gandhi) could not even unite the Meitei and Kuki leaders of his own party and take them along with him on his yatra. So what is the Bharat jodo that he is talking about? The yatra is a failure from its very start,” said a BJP leader.