Journalism of Courage
When reports started coming in of a mob attempting to storm N Biren Singh’s personal residence in Imphal’s Heingang area last week, the Chief Minister became the latest public representative targeted by an angry public.
The next day, eight senior Manipur BJP functionaries led by state party president A Sharda Devi – whose own house has been targeted six times in the last few months – wrote to BJP national president J P Nadda. “Public anger and protest is now slowly turning the tide, putting the sole onus of (these) prolonged disturbances (on) the failure of the government,” the leaders of the ruling party wrote.
They pressed for the need to regain public confidence that the state government could deal with the situation. And they addressed an ambiguity that continues to persist five months after the conflict in the state broke out, saying that “Article 355 if there is anything as such imposed in the state” be revoked, and “full command of the Unified Command” be restored to the CM to earn back the people’s trust in the state government.
Article 355 of the Constitution, a step short of Article 356 or President’s Rule in a state, says: “It shall be the duty of the Union to protect every state against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the government of every state is carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.”
Two days after the outbreak of the violence in the state on May 3, the talk of Article 355 was first sparked off by a statement by then Manipur DGP P Doungel, while speaking to reporters in Imphal. Referring to retired IPS officer and former CRPF DG Kuldiep Singh being sent to Manipur as “security advisor” to the CM, Doungel said: “355 is just that the Centre takes more attention in the affairs of the state, and that is the reason why the advisor has been sent… We will see how it develops. Because if things quieten down fast, the advisor will be going back. But if it continues, it will stay and the Centre will be giving us more directions on how to go about things.”
DIDN’T SOMEBODY HUSH HIM AT THE PC?
Five months later, Kuldiep Singh continues to be around as the security advisor as well as heads the Unified Command, set up for better coordination among the different security agencies deployed in the state. The establishment of the Unified Command had been announced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah towards the end of his May visit to Manipur – the only time he has been there since the ongoing conflict.
However, the Union government has maintained throughout that there is no Article 355 in Manipur. In fact, a day after the then Manipur DGP’s statement in this regard, Kuldiep Singh himself denied that the Article had been invoked, blaming “certain elements” for creating confusion over the matter.
However, the hard division between the valley in which Imphal is located and the Kuki-Zomi-dominated hill districts, where writ of the state government no longer runs, means that many in Manipur refuse to believe that the Centre is not running things.
Nando Luwang, the president of the valley-based civil society organisation AMUCA (All Manipur United Clubs’ Organisation), says the Biren Singh government “is just like a silent spectator in this crisis”.
“Though the government has said that there is no Article 355, the kind of Central security present and the interference of the Central government make it seem like it is. Even when there was President’s Rule in the state, we didn’t have this kind of presence of Central forces. But despite their large numbers, the crisis is not getting under control, while the CM does not seem to have the power to command the state forces,” Luwang says, adding that the people’s frustration is reflected in the repeated targeting of the homes of MLAs and ministers.
The Opposition has also picked up on this. Manipur Congress president K Meghachandra Singh points to the violence after a video surfaced recently confirming that two Meitei youths missing since July 6 had been killed.
“A missing persons case was registered by the state government on July 8, but there were no efforts to look for the two students… Their mobile number was also tracked, and the state government would have known about their whereabouts. But because the state force was unable to go there, it took more than three months for anything to happen. Once the photos came out and there was so much outrage, the CBI team came and intervened and only then were a few people arrested. Without the Central intervention, they were unable to do anything. With such limited powers and jurisdiction, how can this government bring any peace?” Meghachandra Singh says.
The demands that Biren Singh be removed have again started gaining force, with members of the popular valley-based collective called Youth of Manipur and a team of Meitei MLAs and ministers raising the same in Delhi recently.
Others such as R K Tharaksena, a leader in the women’s wing of the Meitei group COCOMI (Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity), which has had several stand-offs with Central forces, warn against this. If the CM goes, “then it is likely that there will be President’s Rule”, Tharaksena says.
While some see this as only a formality given the current Central presence, this will be an official stamp of sorts, and it won’t go down well in the Meitei-majority areas.
