Noting public apology from CM : Delhi is also culpable
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 03, 2025 -

Sorry and forgive and forget mistakes.

This was Chief Minister N Biren on the last day of Year 2024 and while there have been different takes on the public apology, it stands that it takes courage and conviction to publicly say sorry.

A point which should be read into the decision of the Chief Minister to extend a public apology.

While the attention of many have been on the public apology of the Chief Minister, one should not overlook the fact that in the same vein N Biren also talked about the need to forgive and forget mistakes.

This very call resonates with the reasoning that 19 months is long enough and the time is now for Manipur to look ahead.

This is what The Sangai Express has been batting for, for quite a long time but the moot point is, what mechanisms have been put in place for the people to leave the past behind and start walking the road to normalcy by forgetting the past mistakes ?

This is an important question and remember the Sorry and Forgive and Forget mistakes line came against the backdrop of the fact that New Delhi appears to have stripped off the needed powers and authority of the Chief Minister.

One cannot help but recall the line, ‘You be in charge of the valley, I will be in charge of the hills,’ of Union Home Minister Amit Shah sometime after violence erupted on May 3, 2023.

Now Manipur is rapidly marching towards the completion of the 2nd year mark of the violence erupting with nothing to show that some efforts have been put in place to restore normalcy in the State.

This is where one is tempted to repeat what has been pointed out many times in this column and that is what has happened to the over 60,000 Central armed police personnel who were rushed into Manipur straight after violence erupted on May 3, 2023 ?

One of the most militarised States in the country and it is flummoxing to even think that hostages can be abducted from a relief centre at Jiribam and later massacred in the most inhuman way, a relief centre set up just near a security outpost.

The Centre has taken note of the arms looted from police armouries mostly located in the valley districts but it is flabbergasting that not a single question has been raised on from where the guns of the Kuki militants have come from.

And who is keeping track of the SoO camps where the cadres and the arms are supposed to be deposited ?

Last time anything was heard about the designated camps was in the early days of the conflict from the Security Advisor.

And it is amid this reality that the Chief Minister has come out with a public apology for the utter failure of the Government to rein in the situation.

The Chief Minister is right for the Government has miserably failed to control the situation and this failure is writ large on May 3, 2023 itself.

The Chief Minister has already talked about intelligence failure for the eruption of the violence, and reasoned that the Government saw nothing wrong in letting the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023 go ahead as scheduled.

This is where there can be different takes, with many asking why the rally was allowed to be staged in the first place, given that Churachandpur was already very tense in the days running into May 3, 2023.

This apart it has been a case of the Government unable to say what its left hand is doing from its right hand.

The public apology of the Chief Minister should also be seen as the total failure of the men hand picked by Delhi and sent here to rein in things.

Remember the Security Advisor, the DGP and the Chief Secretary are all men identified and picked by Delhi to help the State deal with the ongoing clash.

Manipur will also still remember the days when the demand that the post of Chairman of the Unified Command be handed back to the Chief Minister was raised, with thousands of students taking to the streets and throwing life in Imphal into chaos.

The public apology of the Chief Minister is taken note of, but the need to see it as a failure of not only Imphal but also Delhi cannot be over emphasised.

The fact is, Delhi is more concerned with geo-political interests and a pliable Imphal is best suited to its overall agenda. It is against this reality that the public apology from the CM should be understood.