Has Imphal completely lost the plot ? Pinning hopes on Delhi
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 01, 2024 -

Imphal has completely lost the plot and this is perhaps the first time that Chief Minister N Biren Singh has given a somewhat official stamp to this in pinning hopes on the line, ‘Centre’s decisions will help resolve conflict.’

And the Chief Minister qualified this further with the line, ‘positive news in two-three months.’

In effect this means the Chief Minister expects Manipur and her people to wait for another 60 or 90 days before Delhi steps in to broker an arrangement that would put Manipur on the path of normalcy.

Tough to say how this would have gone down with the people, but remember Manipur has been waiting for over 400 days for the Centre to respond to the situation here and another 60 or 90 days may not seem much to the beleaguered people of the State.

The BJP led Government at Imphal may trumpet that Manipur figures in the ‘to do’ list of the first 100 days of New Delhi but if one takes the Presidential address to Parliament on June 27 into account, this sounds a little far fetched.

Remember Manipur did not feature once in the long speech of the President, a speech prepared by the Government.

Whatever it is, this is how New Delhi has been treating the place and her people for well over 400 days and come to think about it, this is not the first time that Delhi has demonstrated that Manipur does not feature in the priority list of India at all.

The indifference of the Prime Minister to the mayhem here may be understood as an extension of the chicken neck syndrome where Delhi has steadfastly refused to look beyond the Brahmaputra.

The mentality that the BJP Government inherited from the earlier Governments continues to ring loud and this is where all the ‘cheers’ of a new Government under the BJP, both at Imphal and at Delhi, can turn into ‘jeers’.

And this jeer was given life and form in the drubbing the BJP candidate received at the hands of the Congress candidate in the Inner Parliamentary Constituency as well as the thrashing the NPF candidate, backed by the BJP, received at the hands of the Congress candidate in the Outer Parliamentary Constituency.

With each blow that the Kuki militants deliver on Manipur and the outcries that follow, the more it becomes clear that in N Biren the BJP at Delhi seems to have found the perfect fall guy.

This is where a new understanding of the line, ‘The Chief Minister of Manipur is co-operating’ delivered by Union Home Minister in Parliament some time last year, becomes more and more relevant.

The confident stance adopted by the Chief Minister during an interaction with The Print comes as somewhat of a sharp departure from the talks that did the round that Manipur may see a change in leadership.

That this talk gained traction after the Chief Minister was not invited to the high level meeting called by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at Delhi is significant and in as much as the Government may maintain that the meeting concerned officials and not political leaders, it did not stop tongues from wagging.

The Sangai Express had also questioned the rationale of holding a meet to discuss the Manipur issue without the Chief Minister and it is amidst this reality that N Biren struck a positive tone in pinning hopes on the Centre working things out in the next 60 or 90 days.

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown is a line that comes to mind and one can imagine the immense pressure that must have been mounted on the Chief Minister and while the Kukis bay for his head on the allegations that the violence is State sponsored, the Meiteis see the indifference of the Prime Minister as a weakness of N Biren.

The only thing predictable in politics is its unpredictability and while there are talks doing the round, no one seems sure what new development may be expected in the coming days.

What however is there for all to see is the fact that Narendra Modi has returned for the third consecutive term and this is where one wonders what may be expected from New Delhi.

Remember it is the same man who has never publicly acknowledged the mayhem in Manipur for over 400 days and the question is whether one can expect the Prime Minister to look at things anew this time.