On June 30, 2023, N Biren Singh and a group of MLAs headed towards the Manipur Raj Bhawan, armed with a letter of resignation. The conflict in Manipur had been raging for 59 days then and the previous night, hundreds of people had gathered at Imphal’s iconic Khwairamband women’s market after two Meitei men had been killed in firing. They had raised slogans against the state government for failing to stop the violence and clashed with security forces. People close to Singh said he felt he had “lost the trust of the people”. However, Singh never reached the Raj Bhawan that day. With his delegation being met by crowds of supporters, Singh’s trusted minister, L Susindro Meitei, handed the letter to some of the women in the crowd who proceeded to tear it for the cameras. Singh announced that he would not resign. About a year-and-a-half later, Singh on Sunday tendered his resignation, days ahead of the Budget session of the Manipur Assembly. Nineteen months since that episode and countless violent conflagrations later, 63-year-old N Biren Singh continued as the embattled Chief Minister of Manipur for two years — battling crises of confidence from the Kuki-Zomi community, from allied parties, from a section of his own party and his ministers, and even from among the electorate. Footballer, journalist, politician In the 1980s, Singh , a footballer, was a wingback in the BSF team that defeated JCT to lift the Durrand Cup in December 1981. He has also represented Manipur in the Santosh Trophy. He took a sharply different turn in 1991 when he started a vernacular daily called Naharolgi Thoudang and worked as its editor. It was in April 2000 that he shot into public attention when he was arrested for sedition along with Thounaojam Iboyaima, a revered figure in Manipuri society who was popularly known as “Pabung” or father. Singh had been charged because the newspaper had reported a speech delivered by Thounaojam at an event which, reports of that time say, had cited a United Nations declaration that “armed rebellion may be a last resort against colonial oppression”. In 2001, with the state then under President’s Rule, Manipur’s Meitei-majority Valley erupted over the Government of India’s extension of its 1997 ceasefire with the Naga insurgent group NSCN(IM) which had included a new clause: that this ceasefire would be “without any territorial limits.” “The situation gave rise to a lot of nationalistic feelings and it was in the midst of all this that he formally entered politics with a new party called the Democratic Revolutionary People’s Party, which supported the new government formed with the Congress’s Okram Ibobi Singh as chief minister and in 2003, its two MLAs ‘merged’ with the Congress. Singh was now in the Congress, a party he would be with for the next 13 years. He rose rapidly in the party. Soon after joining the Congress, he was made Minister of State and went on to be Chairman of the Manipur Pollution Control Board. When he won again from Heingang, this time on a Congress ticket, he became part of the Cabinet. His proximity to Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh was well-known. However, the relationship with Ibobi began souring in his third term and Singh was dropped from the Cabinet despite being reelected in 2017. A disgruntled Singh exited the Congress in 2016 and joined the BJP, ahead of the 2017 Manipur Assembly elections. In 2017, he won on a BJP ticket. However, Singh was not the obvious choice for the Chief Minister’s position. The Congress was still the single largest party in the Assembly with 28 seats but the BJP, with 21 seats, ended up forming the government with the support of the National People’s Party and the Naga People’s Front. And that was what he used to his advantage through his campaign and after he took charge of the new government: that he would “right the wrongs” under the Ibobi regime, from the shadow of ‘encounter killings’ to frequent bandhs and blockades, and frayed ties between Meiteis and the hill tribes. However, people who have worked with him say the tensions and discord that have bubbled over in the last one-and-a-half years were brewing in his first term too. Another blow to his image were accusations in 2020 by then Assistant Superintendent of Police (Narcotics and Affairs of Border Bureau) Brinda Thounaojam of him putting pressuring on the department to drop a case against a Kuki-Zomi BJP leader from Chandel district, Lhukhosei Zou, who was accused in a 2018 drug seizure case. When the BJP came back to power with an absolute majority in 2022, it led a more aggressive government: from crackdowns on poppy plantations in the Kuki-Zomi hills allegedly run by “drug lords” to a hardened stance against the alleged influx of Chin people from Myanmar (who share ethnic ties with Manipur’s Kuki-Zomis). Kuki-Zomi groups and the MLAs from the community — including seven BJP MLAs, two of them ministers — have held Singh responsible for the conflict since its beginning. But now, the rumblings within his own ranks are louder than ever, with one minister, BJP MLA Yumnam Khemchand, saying that he had asked the Chief Minister to step down twice. Many more of his MLAs from the Valley have queued up before the top central BJP leadership asking for the Chief Minister to be changed. His leadership was also singled out for criticism by the National People’s Party when it withdrew its support to the Manipur government. Of all the allegations against Singh, the most serious was of aiding and abetting armed groups such as the Arambai Tenggol. Why did the Centre back him? Sources say that while Singh has internally offered to resign many times, the central BJP leadership had backed him each time. BJP leaders across the board admit that no one more than Singh represents the challenge and embarrassment to the image of a strong leadership that the BJP has sought to portray. “He was one of the fastest rising stars of the BJP in the Northeast and perceived as a bold, decisive CM. But in the last 18 months, that image has obviously been shattered,” said a central BJP leader. There is also an argument that the top leadership of the BJP has never been convinced about Singh’s failure. “Biren Singh is replaceable, but at a time when the Prime Minister and the Home Minister want. Not when the Opposition wants or when these other claimants sense their chance,” he added. Singh has tried to counter this image most recently with his government urging the Centre to reconsider its decision earlier this month to reimpose the AFSPA in six police station areas in the Valley region.
