The Manipur government on Monday night said “doctored” audio clips, allegedly featuring the voice of chief minister N. Biren Singh, were being circulated in “likelihood of inciting hatred and mistrust amongst communities” and “derail the peace initiatives launched by the state and central governments” in the state.
The government made the assertions in a media statement issued by the directorate of information and public relations following a three-part report published by The Wire, a news and opinion website, earlier in the day.
According to The Wire report, an audio file, “claimed to be a recording of chief minister N. Biren Singh”, has been submitted to the Commission of Inquiry set up by the ministry of home affairs to probe the ongoing Manipur unrest and, “which (audio file), if correct, would be evidence of official complicity in the ongoing” conflict.
The report said the “purported maker/s of the 48-minute recording that it was done in person at a meeting where the chief minister unmistakably indicated his partisan complicity in the ongoing violence” and that “this material (audio file) has also been submitted to the Commission – along with an affidavit attesting to its authenticity from the person/s who made the recording at the chief minister’s official residence — and that protection and anonymity has been sought from the Commission as well”.
The audio clip recording is in Meiteilon with some sentences in Hindi, the report said.
The ongoing conflict between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zos began on May 3, 2023, leaving at least 226 dead and over 60,000 displaced.
The Manipur government responded by uploading the links to the there-part Wire report in the media statement issued at 10.45pm, stating "such contents have been found widely circulating through social media and a news report of a certain news agency, more particularly, The WIRE."
The statement said the state government "views such acts of spreading misinformation/disinformation through such doctored clips as anti-national activities for likelihood of inciting hatred and mistrust amongst communities thereby, trying deliberately to disturb peaceful co-existence of communities to escalate the current law and order issues in the State more particularly to derail the peace initiatives being started by both State and Central Governments.”
The statement then appealed to the general public “ for not relying on such unfounded contents circulating in social media and news reports and also to refrain from involvement in spreading such false and fabricated information through any media” and that “ anybody without exception shall be prosecuted... if found involved in spreading such unfounded and baseless contents through any media or posting and sharing of such contents, which will escalate law and order issues in the State and derail the efforts put so far toward bring normalcy and peace in the State”.
The statement had also mentioned about its August 7 media release “on the viral doctored audio clips meant to incite communal violence and derail various peace initiatives being started by both state and central governments at multiple levels” by “claiming the doctored clips to be that of the chief minister.” It also uploaded the FIR in connection with the earlier audio clip registered by the Cyber Crime PS in this regard.
The Wire report said: “The recording we are publishing today captures the voice alleged to be of the chief minister mocking Union home minister Amit Shah, discussing the use of “bombs” in the state... and shielding those who took thousands of lethal weapons from state police armouries."
Below the links of the Wire reports, the statement “clarified that incidents of shelling of rockets and bombs in fringe areas like Kangvai, areas bordering Bishnupur, Imphal East, Moreh, Jiribam, etc by miscreants have been reported from time to time” and the state police and other security agencies “had been taking up steps to book the culprits and to deter them”.
"Many FIRs have been registered in this regard" with investigations being carried out "through agencies like NIA", the statement said, adding security agencies have been able to "control such incidents to a great extent".
Reacting to the Wire report, the Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO), in a statement on Monday, demanded that the central government “take immediate and concrete steps to investigate Biren Singh's actions, hold him accountable, and ensure justice for the Kuki-Zo people. Failure to do so will only confirm suspicions of complicity and further deepen the crisis in Manipur.”
The Wire on Tuesday carried the detailed response of the Manipur government to its report published on Monday.
Chairman of AAP’s parliamentary party, Sanjay Singh, said: “We kept saying that the violence in Manipur is state-sponsored… BJP-sponsored. The main accused is Manipur’s chief minister Biren Singh.”
Calling for Singh’s resignation, he added: "He should be interrogated to find out how much truth is in his claims…. There was full protection of the central government to this (violence). India’s PM did not say a word against it. He didn’t raise a question about the
barbarism against women.”
