Opinion Express View: Manipur CM Biren Singh must go

The withdrawal of support by the National People’s Party (NPP) may not pose an immediate threat to the Biren Singh-led BJP government in Manipur — in the 60-member Assembly, the party has 37 MLAs of its own. However, the Centre, which has failed to intervene in any ameliorative or meaningful way in Manipur’s terrible and continuing crisis, must recognise the writing on the wall. The sobering words of the NPP chief and Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma, must jolt the Narendra Modi government’s 19-month-long do-nothingness. It must begin by recognising that it is not only about political arithmetic. Sangma told this newspaper, “Decisions were not taken at the right time and the situation became worse… People are dying and it’s sad to see them suffer… you could have done things differently, like a change of guard”. Having stonewalled demands for a leadership change in Manipur, the Centre and the BJP top brass would be adding to their list of abdications in Manipur if they choose not to heed their ally’s message. “People need to have confidence in the system and the government… Somehow people are not confident or comfortable”, Sangma said.

Even as Manipur’s ethnic strife has escalated in the past 10 days, the Biren Singh government has conspicuously failed to break from the ineffective methods that it has used since May last year. It has learnt few lessons. The vicious insider-outsider rhetoric continues, internet bans are back and the army and police still do not see eye-to-eye. Primarily, both the Centre and the Biren Singh government continue to treat the crisis as a law and order problem. In a Rajya Sabha speech in July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did underline the necessity to “go beyond politics and bring peace and stability” to the state. However, those words have remained — words. Building consensus takes time and more importantly, the honesty and the pragmatism to acknowledge mistakes. It also requires sustained engagement by the Union cabinet — not just fleeting visits by ministers.

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By all accounts, the Centre has done little more than throw the can towards a flailing and faltering chief minister. To find a resolution that endures, it will need to listen to the voice of the long suffering people of a state in turmoil, and initiate wider and deeper conversations in search of a peace that holds. It will also need to listen to its own allies who point to its costly failures in Manipur. It is urgent that the trust deficit that has widened over the last one and a half years or so is addressed. But first of all, the Centre must remove the chief minister who has presided over the spreading and deepening conflict in his state. The Centre must ask Biren Singh to go — a decision it should have taken long ago. The time for excuses is running out.