Dear Express Explained reader,

A large delegation of leaders from the opposition INDIA alliance are in Manipur, which remains deeply divided and very tense, even though the grim violence and killings seen in earlier weeks have abated somewhat. Beyond the reality of the ethnic faultlines between the Meiteis and Kukis, and the seeming inability of the government to get a grip, certain specific circumstances on the ground and the region have contributed to this crisis, and continue to make it difficult to resolve. Deeptiman Tiwary wrote about the situation created by the Myanmar junta's crackdown on the tribal Kuki-Chin in that country since February 2021 that has sent waves of refugees across the border to seek shelter with Indians of the same ethnic stock in Mizoram and Manipur, and of the enabling role played in this migration by the Free Movement Regime, the (currently suspended) diplomatic mechanism established by the two countries in 2018 that allows people living along the border to cross over and travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa. The hilly, forested, and almost entirely unfenced border between India and Myanmar makes it very difficult to control illegal migration and the trafficking of drugs and weapons.

The situation in Manipur has paralysed Parliament's Monsoon Session, and after failing to get the Prime Minister to make a statement on the crisis in the House, the opposition this week gave notice for a no-confidence motion against the government with the hope that it would finally compel him to speak. There is no chance of the motion succeeding, of course — but as Chakshu Roy explained, that has historically never been the objective of these motions. In fact, not one of the 27 motions of no-confidence debated by Lok Sabha in its history has been carried, but the reason oppositions continue to bring them is to make their point in detail in a lengthy discussion, and to hold the government of the day accountable.

Despite the turmoil over Manipur, some legislative action has taken place in Parliament. Two developments especially are of significance to readers of the Explained section: the Biodiversity Act and the changes cleared by Lok Sabha in the law, and the long-pending DNA technology Bill, which the government has withdrawn. Do read. 

Manoj Sinha, the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, joined mourners in the Ashura procession on the 10th Muharram in Srinagar on Saturday, a significant and, to many, surprising, political development. Earlier, on the 8th Muharram, the government had allowed a procession through the heart of the city, lifting a prohibition that had been in place from the time militancy began in the erstwhile state more than three decades ago. Bashaarat Masood wrote about the history of Muharram in the Valley, tracing the story to the time of the Dogra rulers of Jammu and Kashmir, through the significant political interventions by Sheikh Abdullah, to the ban imposed on the procession in the early Nineties.

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Sincerely, 

Monojit 

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