From the battlefields to Delhi : Shifting focus of the people
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 07, 2025 -

May 3, 2023. Torbung, Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, Moreh, Khamenlok in Imphal East, Sugnu, Jiribam, rocket bomb at Moirang etc.

These are some of the more important battlefields that Manipur and the world saw in succession in the last 21 months.

Fast forward to February 6, 2025, and the focus of everyone is on Imphal and Delhi and the date of reckoning is February 10, the day the Assembly session is set to start. Nothing much to write home about for all the instances that have been mentioned here tell the story of the tragedy that has identified Manipur for over 21 months.

The street protests, the bonfire lit in the middle of the roads, the leikai heroes and heroines who come out on the roads to air their understanding of protests, the barking orders given to all motorists in the dead of the night to turn off the headlights while the roads are strewn with obstacles, are all experiences that Imphalites had to endure, though the real battlefields, the killings took place at foothills where Meitei villages are situated.

The number of deaths, the number of people who have been made to disappear, the thousands of people driven out of their homes and now surviving in the numerous relief shelters set up across the length and breadth of the State, all make up the story of Manipur of the last 21 months and in between Delhi has just been one mute spectator, with nothing much to show that anything tangible has been taken up.

True the Free Movement Regime has been done away with, with the caveat that a sort of permit system will now come in place, and a promise has been made to fence the Indo-Myanmar border, but how much have these measures been successful in stopping the incursion from across the border is a question that has still not been answered.

One may just recollect the recent past when intense gunfights ensued between cadres of Manipur based armed outfits and the Myanmar based, KNA-B.

So who was guarding the border when the intense exchange of gunfire erupted ?

The answer should be obvious to all. In all these instances Delhi has been a mute spectator and yet Imphal continues to sing differently.

So it is from the battlefields to the world of politicking, political camps, the show of strength to speculations, the focus of the people have been kept shifting and can one see the hand of Delhi in the latest political developments ?

Just a question, but what is true beyond just a question is the refusal of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to either meet the Chief Minister of Manipur or BJP Ministers and MLAs who are believed to belong to the dissenting camp.

A case of the Chief Minister and some Ministers/MLAs being summoned to Delhi, but the Union Home Minister refusing to meet them on the ground that they have not been able to work out their differences and things cannot get more jarring than this.

So what happens if the no-confidence motion is actually moved with the active support from the dissident camp of the BJP ?

This is where the stand of the Congress with just 5 MLAs and the NPP with 6 MLAs would become very crucial and it does not need political insight to foretell the position that the Congress would take.

Would the Central leadership of the BJP want this to become a reality ?

Again it does not need deep political insight to understand what the take of the Central BJP leaders would be and in such a case what could be the way forward ?

Last heard, the proposal of a key BJP man to the dissenting BJP MLAs to wait till the end of the scheduled Assembly session has been turned down which in effect could mean that the dissident MLAs are ready for a showdown giving more weight to the speculation doing the round of a no confidence motion.

No final words said yet and no meeting with the Union Home Minister and so one can expect to see spe- culations doing the round as it has in the last 2/3 days.

And will Delhi continue to watch as in the case of the ongoing clash ?