Date with PM after 14 months of mayhem : Behind closed door
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 30, 2024 -

Mentioned Manipur three times, twice in Parliament and once during the August 15 address to the Nation in 2023, and now finally audience granted.

After more than 14 months of Manipur going up in flames on May 3, 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally decided to meet Chief Minister N Biren at New Delhi on July 28, putting to rest speculations on whether such a meeting would materialise or not.

In a way the Chief Minister will stand vindicated, for what he had hoped for has been proven true, a hope he had articulated to media persons before leaving for New Delhi to attend the NITI Aayog meeting as well as the Chief Ministers' Conclave on July 25.

However 24 hours after the Prime Minister found time to interact with N Biren, there has been no further follow up.

No official report has come out on what transpired during the meeting, what the Prime Minister had to say, the story the Chief Minister presented to the Prime Minister, the suggestions put forth by Narendra Modi to put the State on the track of normalcy, in short a roadmap to restore normalcy.

It was also significantly noted that the Chief Minister did not take to the social media to announce his meeting with the Prime Minister, which is so uncharacteristic of him, given that he is known as a personality active on X as well as for putting updates on his Facebook wall.

This left the Imphal based media in some sort of a quandary late in the evening of May 28 for there were conflicting inputs from different sources on whether the Chief Minister had met the Prime Minister or not.

It was only after The Sangai Express chanced upon an update from a personality engaged with a well known news channel that news of the meeting was carried.

Here again, after report of the meeting was more or less confirmed, with the clock ticking away in the night of May 28, there were different inputs on the time the Chief Minister spent with the Prime Minister, with some putting it at 15 minutes, while others put it at 20 minutes.

Yet others put it at 25 minutes and the English edition of this newspaper decided to go along with the 25 minutes time.

The uncertainty continues, with no official statement coming out on what exactly the Prime Minister had to say.

This is where speculations are bound to arise and already many a tongue are wagging, especially among those who have been closely following the latest trip of Chief Minister N Biren to Delhi.

And it is amid this speculation that one is reminded of what an unnamed BJP leader had told a news agency, 'All that we have to do is bring both sides (Meiteis and Kuki-Zos) to the table for discussions.

It shouldn't be about a new State nor about driving out people.' A line which The Sangai Express had touched on in this very column just a day earlier.

It is more than likely that the Prime Minister did not say much of substance which could have been conveyed to the people, but if one goes by what the unnamed BJP leader had to say then it could well be a case of not hurting either the Meiteis or the Kukis and this can perhaps be best explained by the words, 'It shouldn't be about a new State nor about driving out people.'

Extend the understanding of these words a little bit and it could well be read as saying solution need not be seen through the prism of creating a Separate Administration or a Union Territory, a demand put forth by the Kuki-Zo MLAs and Kuki CSOs and about identifying and deporting those who came after a certain cut off year.

In the face of the silence on what exactly transpired during the meeting with the Prime Minister, it is but natural for people to put two and two together and see if it can add up to portray a whole picture or a frame that comes somewhere near the understanding of a whole picture.

No one knows if and when the minutes of the meeting with the Prime Minister would be spelt out, but the very fact that time was worked out to grant the Chief Minister of Manipur some time to discuss the raging issue is taking things forward.

It should also be clear to Imphal and the State political leaders that the July 28 meeting with the Prime Minister should and cannot be the last either.

More co-ordination with Delhi is the need of the time and Manipur may need to convey the message that indifference is not something that will now be accepted as part of the game.

The onus to demonstrate this should lie with the political leadership of the day.