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“This is not a Hindu-Christian conflict. Some interested parties have painted it as such, as part of a conspiracy,” said a senior RSS functionary who admitted that the conflict had opened a wound which would take years to heal.
He said while Kukis happened to be Christians and a majority of Meities were Hindus, the clash between them had nothing to do with their respective religious identities.
The assertion by the Sangh functionary, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, came against the backdrop of claims by some organisations, including some prominent ones based abroad, which, citing the destruction of churches, termed the violence a religious conflict.
“Kukis and Meiteis have no history of violence,” he said, adding that marriages between members of the two communities were common.
02:04
Uddhav Thackeray targets PM Modi on Manipur, Eknath Shinde on Raigad
The Sangh office-bearer also supported the claim of Hindus over the sites of Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque and the Shahi Idgah in Mathura.
“They should be handed over to Hindus. In fact, there should not have been any dispute in the first place, given the indisputable Hindu character of the two. A dispute has been manufactured,” the Sangh office-bearer said, his statement coming against the backdrop of an escalating legal fight over control of the two places where temples had stood before they were allegedly destroyed by the Mughals to make way for the mosque and the Idgah.
The Sangh functionary justified the demand for a Uniform Civil Code and said the framers of the Constitution had listed its enactment among their aspirations, and by pointing to the orders passed by the Supreme Court where it lamented the delay on that score. “Civil laws should be the same, just as we have similar penal laws,” he said, while adding that the issue of how much uniformity could be achieved in personal laws was an issue which had to be navigated.
02:39
West Bengal Assembly to pass resolution on Manipur issue
He reinforced the assessment that the UCC drafted for BJP-governed Uttarakhand could be a “pilot” for similar attempts, while revealing that a majority of tribals in the hill state resented the perception that they favoured polygamy.
On Manipur, the Sangh office-bearer said while the HC order directing the government to look into the claim of Meiteis for ST status on par with Kukis and other tribes provided the immediate trigger, there were other underlying factors as well. He mentioned narcotics trade, steady influx of Kukis from Myanmar, the worry of Meiteis about their shrinking access to land and other resources among the wedge issues which had festered.
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