Any solution in Manipur will have to begin with a de-escalation of tension and dialogue between communities.
Last week, speaking at a press conference marking 100 days of the third term of the NDA government, Union Home Minister Amit Shah emphasised on the need for dialogue between communities and for drawing up a “roadmap for making all kinds of efforts” in Manipur to bring under control the 16-month-long ethnic conflagration. And yet, as violence resurfaced in the state earlier this month, among the many failures in governance has been a deepening deadlock between the state administration and the Unified Command of security forces, set up in May 2023 and headed by Kuldiep Singh, a retired IPS officer and Security Advisor to Chief Minister N Biren Singh. Now, as a report in this paper has revealed, the tussle between the CM’s office and the Unified Command has further strained the already flailing security apparatus, with government functionaries claiming that the CM has been rendered “completely powerless”.
From the Naga-Kuki clash of 1992 to the Meitei-Pangal conflict in 1993 to the Kuki-Paite hostilities of 1997, ethnic conflict has been a part of the region’s complex history, tied up in fraught questions of allocation of land, reservation, access to resources and opportunities. But that the CM failed to learn from the past and push for dialogue over militarisation in the early days of the conflict between Kukis and Meiteis showed a refusal to see the crisis for what it really is — a call for development and non-partisan administration. It brought to a standstill the work of politics, of talking and listening, negotiating and healing, paving the way for the mobilisation of ethnic differences into bargaining chips through acts of violence. But the current breakdown in the chain of command where the Security Advisor does not report to the CM also shows the shortsightedness that has been a leitmotif of this tragedy. With complaints against security forces of partisanship and inexpediency, it is not only internal stability that is rendered vulnerable but also security at the borders that is imperilled. The suspension of the Free Movement Regime between Manipur and Myanmar and the proposal to fence the 1,500 km border notwithstanding, the state serves as a gateway to India’s Act East Policy. It necessitates transparency and coordination within the government and between its political, administrative and security wings.
Any solution in Manipur will have to begin with a de-escalation of tension and dialogue between communities. Continuing with a discredited CM and then disempowering him, however, is the worst way to achieve this. Instead, a change in state leadership and an all-party meeting to discuss the way forward is urgently needed.
