'People Were Fed Up...': As Biren Singh Resigns, Manipur Speaks With One Voice
Locals belonging to both Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities say the chief minister should have resigned a long time ago.
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It was at the end of a long Sunday at work on a construction site when Joshua Hangsing, a daily-wage worker displaced for nearly two years, saw the news flash on his phone.
Meena, who was a Meitei woman married to a Kuki, and Tonsing were burnt alive inside a vehicle by a mob on 4 June 2023 on the outskirts of Imphal West. On 9 February, Singh's resignation from office left political uncertainty in its wake, and for some, like Joshua, a lingering sense of 'justice delayed.'
“Nothing will bring back my wife and son,” he tells The Quint over the phone.
Insiders claim there has been mounting pressure from all sides – including Meitei MLAs and locals – on Singh and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over their inability to “normalise” the situation in Manipur. Amid reports of an “open revolt” in Singh’s Cabinet, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court taking cognisance of the controversial ‘Biren Tapes’, Singh's removal is being seen as "a last-ditch effort by the Centre at damage control", perhaps with an eye on the 2027 Assembly elections.
'People Fed Up with Incompetence'
Locals from Imphal claim that though the resignation may have come as a surprise to some, public sentiment among the majority Meiteis had been brewing against Singh for quite some time now.
“People are fed up with the incompetence of the government, and the step-motherly treatment by the Centre,” Imphal-based independent journalist Paojel Chaoba tells The Quint. “At the inception of the crisis, some people may have been blind to the CM's actions, but now, they have started to open their eyes, and they know what’s happening.”
Several businesses have suffered, and "no one is making a profit”, Chaoba adds.
Arif Hussain, a Pangal Muslim from the Valley who works as a driver and has been ferrying passengers (mainly journalists) to Kuki-Zo areas beyond the buffer zones, says he and other drivers often have to pay heavy "tolls" to both Kuki and Meitei village guards who stand as sentries. Hussain adds that due to being geographically landlocked, Imphal has been facing shortage of goods and resources, including petrol.
Although hesitant to "discuss politics”, Hussain states it is the responsibility of any state government to respond to people’s issues – and the “present government in Manipur was failing to do so”.
Faction Wars
As a turncoat politician from the Congress who joined the BJP a year ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections, Singh’s first term as the ‘first BJP CM of Manipur’ was fragile and instantly led to the formation of rival power centres. He was an outsider with no background in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) politics, and thus, the Centre’s decision to pick him as CM over some of the other more grounded, ideologically attuned party leaders like Biswajit Singh and Konthoujam Govindas, who continue to wield influence on ground, rubbed many the wrong way.
“There were primarily two reasons for internal dissatisfaction and factionalism against Singh: His overt majoritarian populist politics and his excessively centralised style of governance,” Kham Khan Suan Hausing, Professor of Political Science at the University of Hyderabad, notes.
Insiders claim that Singh used the 21 months of violence “as a ruse” to ponder over and develop a high-handed approach to running the show, resisting any political dissidence within or outside the party. “All political decisions would be arbitrarily taken in a manner that promoted a very overcentralised political system,” a party insider tells The Quint.
Singh’s harsh stand on dissent was, in fact, visible back in 2020 when he shunted out the decorated police officer and popular politician Radheshyam Singh, subsequently re-inducting him as advisor to CM (a post that Radheshyam quit, citing the tokenistic position). His resignation set the stage for new power centres to emerge within Manipur BJP and Singh’s Cabinet.
Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Y Khemchand Singh and his team, along with Manipur Speaker Th. Satyabrata Singh (incidentally one of the potential future CM faces and erstwhile Biren loyalist), have been rebelling against Singh for some time now. Last year in October, they were among the clutch of BJP MLAs who reportedly signed a letter to the PMO, seeking Singh’s resignation from CM’s post.
“Khemchand and Satyabrata Singh seem disappointed by the way Singh handled the crisis in Manipur. They felt that the law and order had been compromised, and that the government had shown ineptitude in handling the matter,” Hausing augurs.
Moreover, the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs within the BJP have been resisting the government’s inaction to end the violence. Last year, several of them, including senior leader Vungzagin Valte who was left paralysed after a mob attack in May 2023, sat at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar with their mouths covered with black masks. The “symbolic” silent protest was meant to express the MLAs’ angst at not being heard by their own party.
Following Singh's resignation, one of the Kuki-Zo MLAs dubbed it “good riddance”, refusing to comment further.
A Change of Heart?
Politicians aside, the public had also seemingly become weary of Singh. A sign of the shifting support for the former CM among the Meiteis can be observed in the reaction of the Meira Paibis, the civil society of Meitei mothers and women, who had allegedly come out in support of the CM in 2023 when he attempted to resign.
The Paibis and other social and civil society Meitei organisations have become increasingly disappointed with Singh’s inability to shield the “village volunteers” in the Valley areas, a member on condition of anonymity tells The Quint.
Even in 2023, when alleged visuals of Meira Paibi women stopping the CM from resigning went viral, allegedly by Meitei women, the support was mostly “stage-managed”, claims Imphal-based environmental activist Ram Wangkheirakpam.
“There was no support for him, except from a small section. All the imagery of support was engineered. In reality, many from the Meitei community had also been waiting for him to go. It was only the BJP high command that kept him in the chair,” he adds.
“His resignation will have no impact on us nor change anything for the Kuki-Zo people. He has not been our CM for two years – and we don't care who comes or goes as Manipur CM,” says Ajang Khongsai, President of Kuki Inpi, the chief civil society of the Kukis, headquartered in Churachandpur.
Youth leader DJ Haokip, who is part of the Kuki Students' Organisation, agrees, adding,
President’s Rule
Albert Renthlei, former convenor of Zo United in Churachandpur, believes Singh's resignation is just another “tactic”.
"If President’s rule is invoked under Article 356 in Manipur, Singh will be made the caretaker. That means he can still call the shots without having to worry about the responsibilities and accountability that comes with the CM’s office,” Renthlei notes.
Hausing, however, adds that imposing President’s rule could “hurt the BJP electorally as it would bust the myth of the 'double engine sarkar'."
But there might be an upside.
“President’s rule at this juncture could help with the law-and-order situation which has totally broken down over the past two years,” Chaoba says.
Meanwhile, if the BJP chooses to pick a successor for Singh, the new appointee will have to face a difficult challenge. “Since Biren Singh has raised the bar for ultranationalist indigenous sentiment, for a new person in that position, any amicable or partial stance toward either Meitei ultra-nationalist groups like [Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun] or tribal demand for separate administration is likely to be met with backlash,” says Hausing.
The other alternative is that the BJP is using Singh's removal as an “event management tactic” to divert public attention from the growing evidence of Singh’s alleged role in perpetuating ethnic violence. In such a case, the party might choose to bring back Singh after some time, stating the lack of other decisive or credible leaders.
Though some like Wangkheirakpam hope that Singh's stepping down may lead to potential for some “second-level diplomacy of peacebuilding”, the Kuki-Zo remain pessimistic about chances of reconciliation.
“Biren might step down, but no Kuki can ever become Manipur CM. The Meitei remain in power and as long as that happens, Imphal will be out of bounds for us,” Renthlei says.