Delhi, Raj Bhavan in the thick of it : Present spell under PR
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 01, 2025 -

The talk doing the round is, how long will President's Rule continue? Or to put it the other way, how long will the Assembly be kept under suspended animation?

The answer lies with Delhi, but the points running through this question should be clear.

Has bringing Manipur under Delhi gone any way in bettering the situation? The answer is out there.

A look at the situation should tell a significant tale. Gun fire or incidence of violence between the Meitei and the Kuki-Chin communities has definitely seen a wane ever since President's Rule was imposed on February 13 this year.

Yet it still stands that no Meitei dare to take the road route along National Highway-2 and no Kuki-Chin people have felt it safe to come anywhere near Imphal or any of the valley districts.

Thousands continue to languish in the different relief centres set up across the length and breadth of Manipur.

Thousands are yet to return to the place they once called home at Churachandpur, Kangpokpi or Moreh.

On the other hand, no Kuki-Chin people feel it safe to return to Imphal or any of the valley districts.

Many still on the missing list with many families having opted to go in for symbolic last rites with pangons and this is how situation has been like since the evening of May 3, 2023.

To the lay person, the man and woman out there trying to make a living, the coming of PR has hot meant much difference, save for the absence of direct confrontation between the two warring sides and this is something Raj Bhavan should take note of.

The reality says nothing much has changed, all indications that Delhi is also equally lost on how to deal with the situation, much like how it was when there was a popular Government in place at Imphal.

The PR stint started off on the right note in the sense that a non-nonsense approach was adopted to recover all illegal weapons and the response in Imphal and other districts in the valley was encouraging.

The same however cannot be said of in the hill districts, particularly at Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal.

It is important to take note of this observation, for it should be clear to Delhi that as long as different yardsticks are seen to be used to ensure the rule of law, peace and normalcy will be hard to come by.

The misgivings cannot be dismissed with a wave of the hand.

The seeming long rope given to the Kuki-Chin groups, especially in the face of the manner in which the Kuki-Chin-Zo representatives bluntly refused to sign on the points drawn up by the Union Home Ministry after the Delhi meeting on April 5 is something which would not have missed the attention of Imphal and the different CSOs here.

Delhi and by extension Raj Bhavan have not once indicated that they have noted the defiance of the Kuki-Chin-Zo organisations which come under the Kuki-Zo Council.

Would things have been different if there had been a popular Government here?

Speculative this is but important to try and understand why this question has been raised and this is where the focus of the people has been on how Delhi has been responding to the unfolding situation.

Statistics don't lie and it stands that for more than 700 days the Kuki-Chins have been holding sway over National Highway-2 forbidding all Meiteis from taking this route.

Over 250 people on either side of the clash divide have died, many are still missing, thousands continue to languish in relief centres.

Take the fact that the free movement from March 8 call from Amit Shah was reduced to a fiasco is there for all to see and this is precisely one reason why Imphal is so sceptical of the moves initiated by Delhi and by extension Raj Bhavan.

It is amid this seeming failure, by default or otherwise, that the call to instal a popular Government has started to reverberate with at least 21 MLAs from the ruling front having written to the Prime Minister as well as the Union Home Minister.

Not clear how the move of the 21 MLAs would have been taken by the people of Manipur, but it stands that many are not satisfied with the manner in which Delhi has been handling affairs here.

To yet many others, Delhi would be seen as the real authority and power after Manipur went up in flames on May 3, 2023 and hence the reading of many that PR is just another name given.

Remember when the Security Advisor was made the Chairperson of the Unified Command and not the then Chief Minister.