Amit Malviya’s lies cannot save drowning image of BJP in Manipur issue

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Explanation

Manipur is a state in India located in the northeast part of the country and holds around a population of three million. There are 33 recognized tribes in the state that either belongs to Nagas or the Kukis. Now, the Meiteis, a group of tribal people have demanded ST status like the Kukis which resulted in a violent clash between the two ethnic groups. This all started on May 3 when a tribal solidarity march happened at Churachandpur turned into violence and destruction.

Meanwhile, a video surfaced the social media on July 19 where we can see two women being forcibly stripped naked and sexually assaulted in public and allegedly gang raped  by a mob caused severe outrage across the country. Sadly, after 77 days of this horrific incident, the police have arrested the main accused named Huirem Heradas along with three others.

In the meantime, when Annamalai participated in a protest that happened at Sholinganallur, he told the reporters, “We know the history of Manipur which is a complex state, even before BJP came to power. Peace and Manipur don’t co-exist. If you have a closer look, you can notice that before 2014 Manipur has seen more deaths, military fights and murders. Only after 2014, it is moving towards peace”.

Similarly, we can see a tweet on the official page of Amit Malviya, National in-charge of BJP’S Information Technology Department, where he states that “The Congress is lecturing on violence in Manipur? Have they seen their track record? Lets not forget the current conflict is a legacy of the Congress party… Pitting one ethnic group against the other was the only way Congress knew how to remain in power. Here is a look at the comparative casualties.”

The Congress is lecturing on violence in Manipur? Have they seen their track record?

Lets not forget the current conflict is a legacy of the Congress party… Pitting one ethnic group against the other was the only way Congress knew how to remain in power.

Here is a look at the… pic.twitter.com/8Vukj0dAhM

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) July 21, 2023

The chart in the tweet is titled “Manipur witnessed minimal casualties under Modi Government”. Looks like BJP is spreading such information swiftly throughout social media.

What’s the truth?

First, when we started to fact-check the bar charts shown on Amit Malviya’s Twitter handle, we found out that the data are completely misleading.

One should know the detailed analysis and the regime changes that happened in India from 2001.  Atal Bihari Vajpayee led the BJP government which ruled from 1998 to May 2004. Later, a Congress-led government headed by Manmohan Singh ruled the centre for the next ten years from May 2004 to May 2014.

This was followed by the BJP government led by Narendra Modi who is in power since May 2014.

In this case, while checking the data which is widely circulated in social media with the title “Manipur witnessed minimal casualties under Modi Government” we found the following facts.

• The UPA-led government, which has been re-elected in 2009, is known to have controlled the riots and casualties in Manipur. This can be confirmed by the data shown for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 in bar chart.
• The death toll in Manipur was reduced by the UPA-led government while it shows a significant increase in 2015 when Modi came into power.
• Similarly, you can see a decline in casualties in 2019 and 2020 as we all know that as the CORONA period. As curfews are imposed, people are not allowed to come out of their houses.
• And all these data are consistent with the records from the annual report (Annual Report from Ministry of Home Affairs) published under the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Union Government.
• But the annual report published every year on the Home Ministry’s website has not been released since the last report in 2021-2022. The report published in 2021 also did not mention any information about the casualties and riots in Manipur. So at present, we have only got the data till 2021-2022.
• Amit Malviya has not provided any source for the information he shares on his Twitter for the years after 2020.

What does the report released by the Ministry of Home Affairs say about the Manipur riots?

A review of the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs shows the data on the riots that happened in Manipur so far, the casualties of civilians and security forces, and the rioters arrested so far.

The civilian casualties that happened in the riots so far in Manipur are:

In 2002 alone, 60 people were killed in Manipur. This number has increased to 50 in 2003 and 88 in 2004 to 158 in 2005. Later, when the Congress government led by Manmohan Singh ended its rule, it significantly decreased to 28 in 2013.

Later after the Narendra Modi-led government came to power, this number increased, and then during the Corona period, the number decreased again due to the lockdown and imposition of curfews.

As mentioned earlier, there are no reports published after 2021-2022 in the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs. So officially we have data till 2021-2022 only.

The Indian Express, which reported on the death toll in the Manipur riots, noted that the toll had risen to 142 in the last two months alone.

Insurgency incidents in Manipur: (2004 to 2020)

Similarly, the number of riots in Manipur which was 225 during the Congress-led government in 2013 has increased to 278 after the BJP rule.

Casualties of Security forces in Manipur: (2004 to 2020)

Analyzing these data, it can be clearly seen that the number of casualties among the lower security forces increased significantly in 2015 compared to 2010-2014.

Records of extremists arrested/surrendered/killed so far in Manipur: (2004 to 2020)

This shows that during the UPA-led regime, nearly 10,539 rioters have been arrested and 1359 rioters have surrendered. As a result, the number of rioters decreased significantly in the following years.

Conclusion

In our research, we found that Annamalai’s claim that Manipur is moving towards peace only after 2014 is completely wrong.

Similarly, the data published by Amit Malviya on his Twitter page under the title “Manipur witnessed minimum casualties under Modi Govt” is also misleading.

Proof Links