There’s a saying in Hindi — “Der aaye durust aaye” (roughly translated, better late than never). The resignation of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh today was long overdue. It should have come immediately after violence began on May 2023 or at least when the reprehensible rapes of Kuki women came to light a couple of months into the violence. That it took 20 months, the killing of over 250 people from across communities and the internal displacement of over 75,000 people before this happened is a sad reflection of the priority accorded by the powers-that-be to this very important and sensitive region of the country.
That something was on the table was apparent after Ajay Kumar Bhalla, the former Home Secretary, was appointed as the Governor of Manipur. As the seniormost advisor to the Government of India, who was also from the Assam Meghalaya cadre of the IAS, Bhalla was expected to have insights about people and problems of the Northeast that would help resolve the problem.
The suddenness of the resignation could be attributed to the lack of confidence shown by the ruling party MLAs in Singh’s leadership and the possible no-confidence motion from the Opposition which was likely to be tabled in the Legislative Assembly being convened from February 10. It is also worth pondering whether the resignation has anything to do with the impending meeting of the PM with President Donald Trump.
This resignation is the first proactive action that the Centre appears to have taken to resolve the festering problem. It is likely to be received favourably by all groups including the Meitei ones. Singh’s removal is the first step towards bringing normalcy to the state.
The Centre should take the reins of the state in its own hand by promulgating President’s Rule. The AFSPA should be uniformly imposed in the entire state to enable Central forces to operate proactively and launch a drive to recover the large quantity of arms and ammunition “looted” by anti-national elements in the early days of the violence. The next step in the normalisation process should be to begin demobilisation of existing insurgent groups like the Arambai Tenggol, the Meitei Leepun, as well as the Kuki groups. These groups must be disarmed immediately to prevent further violence.
Finally, any hope of bringing normalcy back to Manipur rests on the ability of authorities to expeditiously investigate and bring to book the perpetrators of violence. Bringing closure to the people who have suffered is the bare minimum before the warring parties can be brought to the negotiating table. For that it is essential to identify individuals and organisations who are independent and impartial.
The writer is a retired additional director general (ADG) of the Border Security Force.
