Manipur dissection

The good news is that the chief minister of Manipur, N Biren Singh, has at long last realised that the Centre gives two hoots about him as far as administering the state is concerned.

- YAMBEM LABA

He was made to abandon his position as the chairman of the Unified Command and made to appoint his own replacement. Now 19 months since the state has been plunged into a state of turmoil and chaos with no signs of the state existing in any form, he has at last spoken out, stating that he has not been provided with any intelligence report for the past 15 months. And he also seems to be realising that his own police force has been bypassing him when he stated that the Cyber Crime unit of the police has also not been giving him any inputs. So on papers, by his own admission, we have a chief minister whose police force is ignoring him.

The better news is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is maintaining his thunderous silence over Manipur and that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has remained non-committal on the question of replacing CM Biren.

But the fact is that the Manipur and the Assam Governors were summoned from Guwahati by the President of India and were asked to submit a report on Manipur in person. This indicates a possible imposition of Article 356 of the Constitution of India whereby Manipur would be placed under President's rule and the Assembly kept under animated suspension.

CHANGING DEFINITIONS

It has been 19 months since 3 May 2023, when the prairie fire began and Manipur brought into this present state of chaos, during which more than 260 lives have been lost, more than 60,000 people displaced and uprooted from their places of birth and settlement, and thousands of houses destroyed and whole settlements physically erased from the face of the earth, but the official version of the causes behind it is what is perplexing.