The Curious Case Of Benjamin Mate

HS Benjamin Mate, the spurious Chin Kuki ideologue, propagandist and savage, has left a heap of lies on India Today NE’s website with an article titled ‘Manipur Is Not An Ethnic Conflict — It Is A Test Of India’s Democracy’.

Here is our line by line takedown of Mate’s lies. His criminal opinion is in bold. Our comments are in regular font:

The violence that began in India’s northeastern state of Manipur in May 2023 has routinely been described, both domestically and internationally, as an “ethnic conflict.”

Correct.

That is a mistake-and a dangerous one.

Hyperbole.

An “ethnic conflict” suggests rivalry between roughly equal communities, driven by historic tensions or mutual hostility. What unfolded in Manipur was not that. It was prolonged, asymmetric, and deeply structural. It was not the failure of coexistence; it was the failure of institutions.

What unfolded in Manipur was prolonged, asymmetric and deeply structural in the sense that Kuki and the dubious Any Kuki Tribes (AKT) members, powered by quota, held all key positions in almost all departments including the police. Yes, it was the failure of institutions, mostly staffed by Kuki and AKTs.

When Imbalance Is Rebranded as Conflict

Hyperbole.

The Meitei community forms a demographic majority in Manipur and dominates political and administrative structures in the capital, Imphal. The Kuki-Zo community is a minority, largely residing in the hill districts.

Meitei is a near-minority community if all the AKTs, Chin people and border-hoppers from Mizoram are accounted for combined since they all come from the same godown. That Meiteis form a majority is a lie sold by shameless Chin Kukis. If Meitei was majority, the AKT leaders wouldn’t ask for more seats and less for Meiteis after the next census.

In conflicts where one group controls the state apparatus and the other does not, violence is not symmetrical by default. It becomes structural.

The state apparatus is controlled by Kuki employees, make no mistake about it. There are Kukis who are so used to gaming the system that they have become brazen and have been openly admitting it too, thinking nothing will happen. The violence is not symmetrical because the common unarmed Meiteis never had any chance against the 24 Chin Kuki militant groups who attacked Meiteis on Day 1 of the ethnic conflict on May 3, 2023. Chin Kuki militants in battledress and carrying AKs were seen embedded with Kuki mobs as they attacked Meitei villages on Day 1 of the ethnic violence.

Thousands of Kuki-Zo civilians were forcibly displaced from their homes. Entire villages disappeared from maps. Churches were burned. Families fled to relief camps that still do not resemble anything close to normal life. These are not the outcomes of a “clash.” These are the markers of forced removal.

First thing first. Anyone who uses the term ‘Kuki-Zo’ is a politician and a liar. Kuki and Zo have nothing in common and both are like knives to the throat. A small section of their leaders invented this term to sell a victimhood narrative, united by hate against Meiteis and Nagas.

The above paragraph by Mate is classic Kuki, straight from the playbook, to bait the likes of The Hindu reporter Vijaita Singh and the Indian media industry reject Greeshma Kuthar, who has special blindness to Kuki criminals, militants, drug lords, and murderers. Let us rephrase this one to reflect what the thousands of Meiteis who were killed and chased away from Moreh, Kangpokpi and Churachandpur lived through:

Thousands of Meitei civilians were forcibly displaced from their homes. Entire villages disappeared from maps. Temples were burned. Families fled to relief camps that still do not resemble anything close to normal life. These are not the outcomes of a “clash.” These are the markers of forced removal.

Language matters. When persecution is reduced to “tension,” international attention softens. Accountability dissolves. And victims become invisible.

It is true for all communities that suffered, and is not exclusive to Chin Kuki for running a victimhood narrative. Get over it. Indians are not fools who don’t see through it.

Governance By Silence

Hyperbole.

What has distinguished Manipur is not only the scale of violence but the scale of official inaction.

Every department head is a Kuki or AKT, thanks to the ‘quota on arrival’ for illegal immigrants. They are the motherlode of official inaction. But Mate plays another classic one — pin it on Meiteis using words like “majority”, “dominant”, etc and conveniently hide the very people whose inaction in Churachandpur, for instance, sparked the violence.

Weapons disappeared from government armories. Armed groups moved in open daylight. Arrests remained minimal. Recovery efforts slowed. Segregation deepened.

The only people who loot police stations are those who do not have weapons. Mate cunningly called the police stations “government armouries” to throw dirt on the government. On May 3, 2023, the Chin Kuki had their militants living comfortably in designated camps, but they had freedom to shoot and move around if they wanted, which they did that day. Meiteis had moved on like any other developing tier 2–3 places.

However, the imagery of Chin Kuki militants in full battlegear on May 3, 2023 was enough to scare Meiteis into looting police stations. So, Mate is saying let heavily armed and trained Kuki militants kill others, but others should respect laws and rights and not loot weapons.

International human-rights law recognises that responsibility arises not only from what states do but from what they fail to prevent. When authorities have the capacity to intervene and do not, the law does not treat that as neutrality. It treats it as culpability.

Correct. Let us catch all the Kuki bureaucrats and police officers whose inaction led to loss of many innocent lives. It can start with the Kuki Police in Churachandpur.

In Manipur, omission became policy.

Correct. The source of the omission is that all processes and standard operating procedure nodes in government departments are controlled by Chin Kuki. Mate knows this very well. Some non-resident Burmese living abroad have come on record saying they can sabotage any government work because there will always be a lowly Chin Kuki clerk everywhere who can do it.

Culture As Cover for Power

Hyperbole. Like Mate and his minions have not been trying to create cultural capital out of fictitious events and spurious records.

Another feature of the crisis has been the elevation of obsolete royal symbolism into active political identity.

Mate gets a readymade cardboard cutout here to punch i.e. royalty. But let’s look at the other fact, which is the elevation of obsolete tribal symbolism into active political identity. Till this day Mate and his elites do not want to let go of the exploitative chieftainship in a modern nation state.

Manipur’s former monarchy has no constitutional authority. Yet royal imagery and cultural revivalism have been woven into present-day governance as instruments of emotional legitimacy. This shift is not about preserving heritage. It is about manufacturing consent through symbolism.

Opinion, not fact. Let us say, then, Zalengam/cum or Kuki nation project is also “cultural revivalism woven into present-day governance as instruments of emotional legitimacy. This shift is not about preserving heritage. It is about manufacturing consent through symbolism.”

Political systems often turn to tradition when institutions falter. And when ritual is asked to replace justice, communities burn in their shadows.

Correct. Institutions staffed by Chin Kukis faltered. Criminal Chin Kuki MLAs like Paolienlal Haokip who are in pockets of militants replaced justice with ritual and so the communities burned.

Security, Selectively Enforced

Hyperbole.

In any democracy, security laws should apply equally. In Manipur, they did not.

Mate lies yet again despite being fully aware that every genuine, neutral state attempt to bring peace was twisted into communal by the likes of Mate, as he is doing here again, because Kukiland at any cost is the objective.

They maligned Manipur Police as “Meitei police” when the law was only trying to do what it should do under constitutional mandate.

The Chin Kuki keep as pets heavily armed militants of 24 groups, and without any shame calls any action by the police or NIA a communal attempt.

Chin Kuki have at every turn defamed and maligned the Constitution and its institutions by communalising every action that could end their scheming for Kukiland.

Like, Chin Kuki have the sole right to decide what is communal and what is not?

Photo by Abuzar Xheikh on Unsplash

Extraordinary legal powers were imposed in minority-dominated hill districts while being removed from valley areas dominated by the majority population. One region experienced normalisation; the other experienced militarisation.

This is not a technical choice. It is political discrimination.

Under international law, selective policing of populations based on identity is a form of persecution.

Wait a minute. Selective policing by Chin Kuki quota officers, let’s fix that first.

Coming to the other point about extraordinary legal powers in hill districts — dominated by Chin Kuki majority who do not accept the international boundaries of a modern nation state — the facts will haunt Mate not only in his nightmare but also in his waking hours.

The simple fact is that the Meitei and Naga insurgency started out to preserve their own land against the perceived feeling of being overrun by a larger demography and power. The merits of that is a different matter.

Today we know insurgency had its attempt and failed and is useless. Meiteis are in fact active in many fields despite not being ST with land rights, boxed in from all sides by empowered people with reservations. Meiteis had moved on. There was development in the last 7–10 years, businesses flourished, night life returned, Imphal was becoming a new Shillong very fast. Ask anyone, especially the same military guys who come on YouTube and X after handling Chin Kuki mercenaries for a year or two.

But in the hills, the Chin Kuki’s 24 militant groups still kept camps and weapons and operated freely on the highways with extortion. Why won’t India apply AFSPA in the hills then, when insurgency had long ended in the valley?

When Courts Speak and the Ground Remains Silent

India’s judiciary expressed concern early and often. It monitored investigations. It sought explanations. It demanded accountability.

But courts do not command police forces. They issue instructions.

If those instructions fail to produce outcomes, something greater than legal failure is at work. It is executive paralysis.

Another Classic Kuki Trickery, partly coached by Uday Reddy. The answer is again very simple, if you trace the source of the disease. All institutions have been captured from inside by Chin Kuki quota smooth-talking con artists. What the courts say are not implemented by Manipur Police whose top layer of senior officers are from Chin Kuki godown.

Anyway, what the courts say and the Meiteis’ demand for ST were civil matters which Chin Kuki savages could not handle in the manner of a civilised people and started killing and burning.

Mate’s absolute blindness to the existence of Chin Kuki militants who have been extorting from the common people and killing innocent civilians is legendary even by Chin Kuki standards. He has outperformed all other border-hoppers including Paolienlal Haokip, a known criminal in the pockets of Chin Kuki militant groups.

And the dirty germ has the audacity to lecture India’s courts.

Photo by Joao Cruz on Unsplash

Journalism’s Defining Moment

Perhaps the most global failure is narrative failure.

Much of the press has insisted on treating this tragedy as a “conflict between communities,” rather than an accountability crisis.

Partly correct, because Chin Kuki militant gangs under suspension of operations (SoO) agreement are lords of their people and not accountable to anyone. The accountability crisis stems from the continued existence of Chin Kuki militants while Manipur had moved on and stabilised.

This shameless Chin Kuki is trying very hard to pin the blame on anything and anyone but Chin Kuki. Wild savages backed by 24 militant groups went on a rampage and started crying with victimhood the moment they got dealt with.

Chin Kuki and Any Kuki Tribes illegal immigrants started this. Mate can call it whatever he wants, whether it is an accountability crisis or conflict between communities.

Balanced reporting without structural analysis becomes fiction. True neutrality is not silence-it is courage.

History does not judge journalism by whether it avoided offense. It judges journalism by whether it exposed power.

More lecture from a man whose society and leaders live under the mercy of militant groups that dictate their every step in life. Mate can tuck his understanding of journalism in that place where the sun doesn’t shine.

The bitter pill he is avoiding is called balanced reporting without any other stuff thrown in. Mate’s so-called adulterated “structural analysis” is just the opinion of those who he and his people bought, trapped or converted with synthetic methods.

Anything that can be interpreted in more than one way is not journalism.

Mate may sell bullshit and cheat his way into winning an argument by hiding spurious and adulterated opinions behind the smokescreen of structural analysis. Who taught him this nonsense? Uday Reddy?

Will Mate follow what he is preaching here by first beginning with his lapdog of a journalist, that bald cheapskate from Power Corridors?

And About the Word Many Fear

The term “genocide” is not about emotion but intent. Only courts can determine it.

But when a group is singled out, displaced, demonised, and denied protection, international law demands inquiry-not avoidance.

At minimum, Manipur already satisfies the criteria for: persecution, forced displacement, discrimination, crimes against civilians.

If genocide is not yet declared, then investigation — not euphemism — is the obligation

Correct. Meiteis in Moreh and Churachandpur had been harassed for years and years long before May 3, 2023. Even today they can’t return home because Mate and his militants won’t let people return home as it would puncture the Kukiland scheme that involves a lot of killing.

What is the group that is being singled out that Mate is talking about?

Is he talking about that poor, helpless group whose quota officers are sitting at all the important nodes of government service, whose 24 militant groups are living comfortably in camps near residential areas, whose leaders pocket crores and direct poor tribals’ anger to the valley? This group? It is fine because it is very Mate.

A Democracy Under Examination

Manipur is not just a regional tragedy. It is a national mirror.

The question is not whether two communities fought.

The question is whether India’s institutions held their ground when it mattered.

History will remember not the classifications we used but the lives we protected and those we did not.

Shut up. Chin Kuki using language that may appeal to salad eaters is old and stale now. Mate can’t sweet talk his way out of this.

Lecturing India’s systems while working with 24 militant groups with common intention. Mate must clean his own house first and stop making his people break laws for his own gain, and respect the Constitution, only then he may get some credibility for at least a street bum to come listening to his views.

Mate thinks he’s smooth. He forgot questions can be asked of him as well and he will go down very fast.

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