Manipur conflict needs political solution: Eastern Command Army Chief

Guwahati/Imphal :Lt Gen Rana Pratap Kalita, Army’s Eastern Command Chief on Tuesday stressed upon the political solution to the Manipur’s ethnic conflict and said that for many years there have been traditional legacy issues among the communities in Manipur with both communities are entirely polarised.

While talking on the several month long ethnic strife, the Eastern Command Army Chief said that more than 4000 looted weapons are still with the hands of people and these arms are being used and intermittent incidents continue.

“There has to be a political solution to the ongoing conflict in Manipur,” Lt Gen Kalita, who was in Guwahati in connection with the Rising Sun Water Fest-23 at Deepor Beel, told the media. “Initially our plan was in Manipur to carry out rescue and relief operations for the displaced people who were forced to flee from their houses.

“We have been trying to contain the violence and motivate both sides of the communities to come for peaceful resolution of the differences. “Largely we have been successful but because of the polarisation between the Meiteis and Kukis some sporadic incidents are now taking place,” he said.

Lt Gen Kalita said on Monday two people including a security personnel were killed. “Finally there has to be political resolution to this conflict.” Noting that there is some legacy with three communities which live in Manipur, he said that earlier also there was conflict between Kukis and Nagas in the 1990s and a large number of people were killed.

“Both the communities in Manipur are completely polarised. Incidents of violence have come down. More than 5,000 weapons were taken away from police stations out of which 1,500 were recovered and around 4,000 weapons are still with the people. Until the remaining weapons are not recovered or deposited to the authorities, sporadic incidents will continue.”

Lt Gen Kalita said that amidst the Russia-Ukraine war and Israel-Hamas conflict there is also a lot of instability in India’s neighbourhood. “So, the whole geo-politics is changing, impacting not only our country but our armed forces as well,'' he added.

As there are ''changes'' all around, a technological development is taking place and it is making an impact on the art of warfare, said the Eastern Army Command chief.

“So, the war fighting methodology is also changing. That is the reason why 2023 has been identified as the year of transformation by the Indian Army. These are based on five main pillars,” he said.

He said that the five verticals are force restructuring and optimisation, modernisation and technology infusion, processes and functions, human resource management, and jointness and integration.

“Only the armed forces cannot win any future war. It is a whole nation's effort. The whole nation's every segment has to participate in future battles which is proven by the recent Israel-Hamas conflict as well as Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he added.