Bid to form government amid public scrutiny
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: April 19, 2025 -

Five MLAs in Delhi, others meet Governor on April 17 2025 :: Pix - Chronicle News

HAVING faced the public wrath in the first year of the Kuki-Meetei conflict, when their houses and properties were targeted by angry mobs, and solution continuing to elude the almost two-year old crisis, the ruling party legislators appear to be most worried over the prospect of their political career getting short-lived as some civil society organisations have started to scrutinise quiescence of MLAs elected from the valley assembly constituencies.

After N Biren Singh, the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister in the state, stepped down from the top post in February this year, the centre promulgated the President's Rule as the BJP and its allies could not elect the chief ministerial candidate in-spite of the fact that handful of BJP MLAs were in the race for the'chief minister's post and had raised the demand for removal of N Biren, holding him responsible for the crisis, derailment of the state's economy and hardships endured by the general population.

Though Biren's resignation was a much sought-after demand of the opposition parties, after the state witnessed the horrific ethnic clashes, in his resignation letter the outgoing chief minister expressed gratitude to the central government for its 'timely actions, interventions, developmental work, and implementation of various projects for safeguarding the interest of every single Manipuri'.

Biren's words of gratitude to the centre even led to speculation among his detractors that he managed to hold onto the top post for over 18 months due to patronage of the party's central leaderships. After his exit and the state's assembly put under animated suspension in response to the ethnic violence, the central government initiated several measures to restore peace and stability, but to no avail till date, with exception of cessation of violence by both the communities in conflict.

Nevertheless, the centre made every effort to restore peace including deployment of additional 36,000 personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in the state, with presence of the security forces further reinforced by pressing into service additional 90 CAPF companies.

The government also replaced the state's chief secretary and director general of police (DGP), appointed a security advisor to oversee the situation, enhanced coordination among security agencies by setting up joint control rooms and framed standard operating procedures (SOPs) for critical areas, including highways and vulnerable zones.

Despite overhauling the administrative set-up and security machinery, the state continued to face various challenges, such as the infiltration of fighters from Myanmar, which exacerbated the conflict.

With no signs of an amicable solution to the crisis, the elected people's representatives no more involved in policy matters, and the public starting to exert pressure on the power-less legislators to either resign en-masse so as to pave the way for conduct of fresh election or stake claim for government formation, five MLAs, four of them from the BJP, have reportedly been summoned to Delhi, subsequently leading to suspicion that the centre is not averse to the idea of ending the President's Rule so as to facilitate installation of a popular government.

While it is obvious that the central leaderships would be eager to reinstate a BJP-led government in the state, the absence of rapport among the party's MLAs coupled with lobbying for the chief minister's post prior to the resignation of N Biren, indicates that the second attempt, If any, being made to form a new government is merely aimed at pacifying the aggrieved public and not a serious move to restore a popular government.