Is the world standing by as ethnic cleansing takes place in the Indian state of Manipur?
Since May, violence between the Meitei ethnic majority and the Kuki minority has torn through the small state bordering Myanmar in India’s northeast. Mobs have burned hundreds of homes and churches, and tens of thousands of people have fled.
The conflict has largely been ignored by Western media, despite global attention focused on India, which is the rotating host of the G-20 this year.
What is actually going on in Manipur? What should New Delhi do? What are the ramifications for India, Myanmar, and the world?
Indian journalist Barkha Dutt has reported extensively from Manipur this year. Join her and defense expert Sushant Singh, who has chronicled the conflict in Foreign Policy, discuss the for a FP Live conversation with host Ravi Agrawal.
Barkha Dutt, an Indian journalist who has covered the conflict in Manipur extensively this summer, describes what it’s like on the ground.
Dutt, founder of Mojo Story, says that every testimony from people experiencing the Manipur violence was: The police were there, and the police did nothing.
Sushant Singh, an Indian defense expert, explains why the BJP, the party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the local party in power in Manipur, has been complicit in the violence.
Singh breaks down the implications of the violence in Manipur on India-China relations and the preparedness of India’s military.
Sushant Singh
Senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research, India
Sushant Singh is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in India and a lecturer in political science at Yale University. Singh was previously the deputy editor of the Indian Express, reporting on strategic affairs, national security, and international affairs. He twice won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for his reporting in 2017 and 2018.
Barkha Dutt
Journalist & Founder-Editor, Mojo Story
Barkha Dutt is an award-winning journalist as well as the founder and editor of the digital platform Mojo. She is based in New Delhi.
Host
Ravi Agrawal
Editor in chief, Foreign Policy
Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, the host of FP Live, and a regular world affairs analyst on TV and radio. Before joining FP in 2018, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade in full-time roles spanning three continents, including as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. He is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy.
