Is Delhi doing the right thing ? Understanding the reality
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Just a few days after supremo of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat minced no words in asserting that the Manipur issue must be given priority, right wing publication, the Swarajya has gone on to run a 1500 worded article under the telling caption, ‘Amit Shah’s meeting on Manipur exposes all that’s wrong with New Delhi’s handling of the troubled State’ which The Sangai Express is carrying with due courtesy to Swarajya. Written by Jaideep Mazumdar, a journalist who has kept a close tab on the developments in Manipur, especially in the face of the extensive false narratives that have been peddled across the country and the world, the said article falls in line with the reality that is Manipur after the place went up in flames in the evening of May 3, 2023. The common theme that runs between the public statement of the RSS chief and the said article cannot be missed by all those who have been following the takes of different personalities on the violence in Manipur. If New Delhi had succeeded in reading the situation right and were not blinded by the compulsion of geo-politics, then the state of unrest could have been controlled in the first few days after Manipur went up in flames. The first few months after May 3, 2023 was total madness. It was chaos everywhere and despite Delhi rushing in close to 60,000 security personnel, the Imphal-Dimapur line was com- pletely cut off at Kangpokpi and remains so to this day, with armed vigilantes calling the shots. Despite the deployment of such a huge number of security personnel, confrontations continued and bullets continued to rain on Meitei settlements at the foothills. It is to protect themselves and their people that volunteers organised themselves under existing organisations and took it upon themselves to strike back and this should about explain the looting of guns and ammunition from the different police armouries across the valley districts. As maintained earlier, the Union Home Ministry took note of the looted arms but not a word has been said about the guns that are being used to fire at the Meitei settlements. Save for a comment or two on the infiltration from across the border, not a word has been said on the status of the SoO pact, which has not been officially and publicly extended after its expiry in the early part of 2024. And in the SoO pact is the Zomi Revolutionary Army, the chief of who is a bonafide Myanmarese. Talk about infiltration from across the border and yet have a peace pact with a group which is headed by someone from across the border and clearly the double standard of Delhi cannot be missed.
It should be obvious to everyone. From day 1 of the conflict, New Delhi has been bungling from one step to the other and perhaps this is best exemplified by the fact that while Chief Minister N Biren Singh has been dubbed as someone who is ‘co-operating’, the same man who called him co-operative did not deem it fit to invite the Chief Minister to a meeting which was specifically called to discuss the violence in Manipur. The same co-operative man has been divested of the Chairmanship of the Unified Command and the same co-operative man was not consulted when the new DGP was appointed. Something is just not right. If New Delhi is under the impression that a better job could have been done or the situation could have been handled in a better way, then what is stopping it from going in for a change of guard ? Or is it a question of finding in N Biren the perfect fall guy, a personality who should be held responsible for all the mess that Manipur finds itself in today ? In the last 400 days or so of the violence erupting, The Sangai Express had stopped short of critiquing the conduct of Imphal and New Delhi, but then remember why questions and allegations loaded with meanings have been raised against the conduct of Central security forces, particularly the Assam Rifles. Read this line along with the silence over the status of the SoO pact and things should be clearer. And this is where the failure of New Delhi to deal with the situation in Manipur clearly emerges and the disturbing question is whether this is deliberate or otherwise.
It should be obvious to everyone. From day 1 of the conflict, New Delhi has been bungling from one step to the other and perhaps this is best exemplified by the fact that while Chief Minister N Biren Singh has been dubbed as someone who is ‘co-operating’, the same man who called him co-operative did not deem it fit to invite the Chief Minister to a meeting which was specifically called to discuss the violence in Manipur. The same co-operative man has been divested of the Chairmanship of the Unified Command and the same co-operative man was not consulted when the new DGP was appointed. Something is just not right. If New Delhi is under the impression that a better job could have been done or the situation could have been handled in a better way, then what is stopping it from going in for a change of guard ? Or is it a question of finding in N Biren the perfect fall guy, a personality who should be held responsible for all the mess that Manipur finds itself in today ? In the last 400 days or so of the violence erupting, The Sangai Express had stopped short of critiquing the conduct of Imphal and New Delhi, but then remember why questions and allegations loaded with meanings have been raised against the conduct of Central security forces, particularly the Assam Rifles. Read this line along with the silence over the status of the SoO pact and things should be clearer. And this is where the failure of New Delhi to deal with the situation in Manipur clearly emerges and the disturbing question is whether this is deliberate or otherwise.