OVER A year since sectarian clashes tore through Manipur, the campus of the state’s premier engineering college, the National Institute of Technology, is without a single Kuki-Zo student.

On May 17 this year, the Supreme Court facilitated the transfer of 38 Kuki students to other NITs across the country. The court’s order states that “the displaced students who seek to avail of classes at any other NIT would be permitted to do so after taking their individual preferences, subject to administrative exigencies.”

While the verdict meant that the Kuki students who fled during the violence would never be back on the campus of their home NIT, Registrar Kumukcham Tomba Singh confirmed that there have been no Kukis among the new admissions this year and the last.

“We have had two fresh batches since last year’s violence, but no Kuki student has joined us,” said Singh, adding that the college takes in 216 students every year, of whom around 50 percent are from outside the state.

Manipur nit NIT Registrar Kumukcham Tomba Singh confirmed that there have been no Kukis among the new admissions this year and the last.

According to the NIT website, the institute currently has 819 students in its UG and PG courses – 421 from within the state and 397 from other states. Until the Supreme Court confirmed the Kuki students’ transfer, they attended classes online while the rest of their batchmates returned to the campus when it reopened in August last year.

Festive offer

On May 3 last year, long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur spiraled into violencewhich claimed at least 226 lives over the past year. While the hill districts of the states are largely Kuki-dominated, the Valley, including capital Imphal where the NIT is based, has a substantial Meitei population.

On May 3, as violence raged in Imphal, with Kuki homes as the target of violence, the Kuki students on campus fled, some to the homes of government officials nearby and the others to the camp set up by the Manipur Police’s 1st Battalion Manipur Rifles. (1st MR) roughly 6 kilometers away.

One of the Kuki students who reached the Ist MR camp on May 3, said, “Nearly all us Kukis fled the campus that night… When we reached the camp, we had hoped to go home or get back to college the following day, but There were already thousands of people at the camp and our hopes were shattered.” Following the Supreme Court order, he has been transferred to NIT Delhi.

The students The Indian Express spoke to said that as the violence spread, the campus was shut and the exams which were disrupted, were held online.

But the campus was to reopen in August and Kuki students knew they didn’t stand a chance of returning to Imphal. The students then approached student bodies and leaders, especially the Kuki Students Organization (KSO), seeking to be transferred to NITs outside the state.

In July 2023, after the final exams that year, held virtually, the KSO sent a representation to the Director of NIT Manipur requesting the institute to “facilitate the transfer of the displaced Kuki-Zo-Mizo NIT students to other NITs and technical institutions outside Manipur at the earliest”. The representation also states that “the 50 displaced students of NIT…can no longer resume their normal classes due to the violence that started on May 3”.

NIT campus The students The Indian Express spoke to said that as the violence spread, the campus was shut and the exams which were disrupted, were held online. (Express photo)

Over the following months, the KSO reached out to the Governor of Manipur, the Union Education Ministry and the National Commission of Scheduled Tribes to highlight the issues faced by the displaced students. Eventually, in February this year, KSO approached the Supreme Court, but by the time the court allowed the Kuki students to be transferred to other NITs, 12 of them had graduated by appearing for online exams and only 38 were left to avail of the benefit. .

Although the SC verdict has come as a relief to the students, it was also a sign that the fault lines were as deep as they had been last year.

A Kuki student who is now at NIT Meghalaya said, “The court verdict has left me with mixed feelings. I’m glad that I am able to continue my studies but I miss NIT Manipur. It was my first preference because it was my home.” His visits to his hometown of Churachandpur, he said, are through Mizoram. “That’s the safest route for us Kukis.”

Manipur Nit Campus While the hill districts of the states are largely Kuki-dominated, the Valley, including capital Imphal where the NIT is based, has a substantial Meitei population. (Express photo)

Another student, who is in his 6th semester at NIT Meghalaya, said, “We are lucky that the court said we could be sent to other NITs. Because we could have never gone back to Imphal. A lot of things have changed for ever – especially our friendship with those from the other community.” He misses home, but “at least I don’t feel like an outsider here”.