How long will PR continue ? A look at the factors
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 23, 2025 -

Not that Manipur is disillusioned or satisfied with the present President’s Rule, but any talk on how long the present arrangement will continue invariably evokes keen interests amongst the people.

And so it is that the report that a popular Government is not likely soon did elicit interests from many readers of The Sangai Express and not without reason.

Political calculations, the reading of who is with who, where one stands in the perception of New Delhi, who appears to be the most acceptable face amongst the current MLAs and how long Central rule is likely to continue are all topics which unfailingly evoke keen interests amongst the people.

It is in line with this trend that a visit to Delhi by any of the more prominent political leaders or MLAs are stuff that are fit to make it to the pages of the daily newspapers published from Imphal.

These topics are invariably tied to the question of how long President’s Rule will continue and to come anywhere near a satisfactory answer to this, one has to take the ground reality into consideration.

Manipur is far from normalcy, best exemplified by the fact that no Meitei can take the Imphal to Senapati or Imphal to Dimapur route by road. Meitei folks were stopped from going to Thangjing Ching to offer prayers just some days back.

No Kuki-Chin people have returned to the place they once called home at Imphal or any of the other valley districts.

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

The present dispensation has not been able to address any of the points enumerated above, but will the coming back of a popular Government resolve this ?

Can a popular Government return without the participation of the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs ?

These are questions one has to keep in mind and if not for anything else, these factors can be the reason why the present arrangement seems set to continue for some more time, that is at least until August.

This is not the first time that Manipur has come under PR and this is in fact the 11th time that Central rule has been imposed in Manipur since 1967.

And the total number of years that Manipur has come under Central rule stands at 6.54 and looking at the present reality, it seems set to add more days to the period under PR.

This takes Manipur to the 4th spot amongst States on the number of days that it has come under PR and there have been times when the Assembly was dissolved necessitating a fresh election.

The ground reality and how Delhi perceives the reality. These two taken together will decide how long Manipur will continue under PR.

And it also stands that the decision that Delhi takes will depend to a large extent on its perception of the saffron party’s prospects when Manipur goes to polls in 2027.

The showing of the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 will obviously hang heavy in the air when BJP looks at the coming 2027 Assembly elections, and while this is still a good two years away, the BJP is a party which believes in working out everything possible before the time comes.

Will continuance of President’s Rule work to the advantage of the saffron party, is a question which would not have been swept aside by the think tank of the BJP.

Or will continuation of PR work to the advantage of its main rival, the Congress, is another question which would not have escaped the minds of the people who matter in the BJP.

How about the compulsion of geo-politics and the stated objective of the saffron party to end insurgency in the region within a stated time frame ?

This is where one needs to look at the compulsion of geo-politics, a type of politics which cannot be understood without taking into consideration the happenings at Myanmar and south east Asia, the growing influence of China, the political reality at Bangladesh etc.

In one way or the other, it is more than clear that the points mentioned here have all had a say in the ongoing clash in Manipur and all these points will need to be taken into consideration while looking at the question of ‘how long PR will continue.’