MANIPUR HAS A HISTORY OF STRIFE, TURMOIL AND BLOCKADES

It was in 1993, when Raj Kumar Dorendra Singh of Congress was CM of Manipur, that there was a flare-up between Kukis and Nagas that lasted from April to December, killing nearly 750 people and destroying 350 villages.

- INDRANI GHOSH

Manipur is not new to turmoil. The once insurgency-ridden, sensitive border state of the Northeast has witnessed strife, bloodshed, ethnic disturbances, and blockades for decades, starting just years after its accession into the Indian Union and later for over 40 years.

Killings and rapes were alleged to be regular. Nude protests by women to elicit a reaction from civil society, and the Central and state governments over sexual assaults, and to put an end to their horrors of being used as weapons of revenge went on for decades.

Arson over custodial deaths was frequent for nearly five decades when the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, (or AFSPA) was in action in Manipur, along with other sister states. After the princely state of Manipur’s Maharaja Bodh Chandra Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 11 August 1947 with the Indian Union, it took just two years for ethnic complexity to give rise to turmoil after it merged completely on 15 October 1949.

Between 1956 and 1972, Manipur was a union territory as the Kuki-Chin, the Meitei and the Nagas’ history of distrust made administration in the region sensitive.

Manipur’s first elections were held in 1972. The polls were held for 60 seats to the state Assembly—40 in the Meitei-dominated valley and 20 in the tribal hill districts. Until 2017 Manipur was mostly ruled by the Congress, which has more or less always been the largest party winning the elections every time.
Even in 2017, Congress had more seats than the BJP, which then made a coalition that pushed out the Congress after three consecutive terms of Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

CONGRESS IN MANIPUR