- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The former army chief also took a dig at China, which borders India’s north-east, saying it provides help to various insurgent groups.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S former army chief general Manoj Mukund Naravane on Friday (28) remarked that involvement of foreign agencies in the ongoing violence in the north-eastern state of Manipur “cannot be ruled out”, as he flagged the “Chinese aid to various insurgent groups”.
According to him, instability in border states is not a good sign for the country’s overall national security. Manipur shares a 400-kilometre border with Myanmar, India’s easternmost neighbour and a country which often experiences internal instability.
The former army chief made his remark while responding to questions on the protracted violence in Manipur while interacting with journalists at the India International Centre on the topic ‘National Security Perspective’ in New Delhi.
“I am sure that those who are in the chair and responsible for taking whatever action is due to be taken are doing their best,” he said.
“The involvement of the foreign agencies, not only I say, cannot be ruled out but I will say they are definitely there, especially Chinese aid to various insurgent groups.”
The 63-year-old former chief of the army staff said the Chinese aid has been helping these groups for years and will continue to do so even now.
On a question about the role of drug-trafficking in the ongoing violence in the northeastern state, Naravane said drug-smuggling has been there for a very long time and the amount of drug which has been recovered has only increased over years.
“We are just a little remote from the Golden Triangle (the area where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet). Myanmar is always in a state of disarray and military rule. Even at the best of times in Myanmar, the government only had control over the central Myanmar not really on the peripheral bordering state whether with India or with China or with Thailand. So drug trafficking has always been there,” he said.
Naravane, who served as the army chief between December 2021 and August 2022, added, “There will probably be agencies or other actors in the game who benefit from the violence and who would not want a situation of normalcy to get on because while this instability is there, they stand to benefit.”
“That might be one of the reasons why we are seeing this continuance of violence in spite of all the efforts, which I am sure have been put in by the state and the central governments to bring it down,” he said.
Naravane was also asked a variety of questions related to army recruitment scheme ‘Agnipath’, restructuring in the Indian defence sector and the China-India skirmishes at the Galwan valley.
Manipur’s embattled chief minister N Biren Singh had also said earlier this month that external forces or elements may have had a hand in the ethnic violence in the state, adding that it seemed “pre planned”.
(With PTI inputs)
