Clipping the wings of the CM ? Games that Delhi plays

Delhi has a lot to answer for. For starters it may well elaborate on what Union Home Minister Amit Shah meant when he gave the directive, ‘You look after the valley, I will look after the hills’ to Chief Minister N Biren Singh sometime last year. Moreover does removing the Chief Minister as Chairman of the Unified Command mean that his directives should no longer be heeded by the DGP and the Security Advisor ? Who exactly is in charge of law and order in Manipur and the significance of this poser should be acknowledged in the backdrop of the fact that the Chief Minister holds the Home portfolio. A popularly elected Government is in place, but has it been made toothless ? The significance of these questions should be understood in the backdrop of the report broken by NDTV that security agencies overlooked or neglected missives from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat to the DGP with a copy to the Security Advisor to ensure protection from aerial threats. This missive was issued as early as January 12 this year and developments on September 1 and September 2 clearly show that Manipur was caught off guard when Kuki militants let loose a barrage of weaponised drones at Koutruk and Senjam Chirang, killing two and injuring over 10 people in the process. This is not the first time that the DGP and the Security Advisor have been exposed or caught napping over missives from the Chief Minister’s office for matters did come to light earlier that the two said officers preferred to sleep over the missive from the Chief Minister’s office over the possible build up of militants at Jiribam and everyone knows what happened to the said place in the early part of June this year. No answer is expected on the posers raised here but be very clear that Delhi cannot continue with its politics of silence and indifference when so many people have died and so many more have been injured, besides those who have been rendered homeless. And even as Manipur is reeling under the shock of the series of attacks with bomb fitted drones, Chief Minister N Biren announced that the service of the National Investigation Agency would be roped in to investigate the case. This is besides the probe panel announced by the DGP. This is fine but it still does not give much comfort in the face of the fact that the case of Hijam Linthoingambi and Phijam Hemanjit who went missing on July 6, 2023  does not seem to have come anywhere near being cracked despite the fact that the prime accused has been identified and arrested by the CBI on October 14, 2023. Far from revealing the details of how the two young students were captured and done to death, their bodies are yet to be traced, adding them to the list of missing persons.  Other than the prime accused who was arrested from Pune, three others have also reportedly been picked up, but the case has not moved since the arrests of the suspects or accused. Manipur would not have forgotten this and it is against this fact that report of the service of the NIA to be used to probe the drone attack will be taken with a pinch of salt.
The Chief Minister is being made a scapegoat. Two persons, handpicked by Delhi to head two key positions at a time when Manipur is reeling under a crisis, and the same two persons preferring to ignore vital information from the Chief Minister’s office, is stupefying. Wonder what Union Home Minister Amit Shah has to say on this. It should now be obvious. It is not a case of Delhi not knowing what to do but is more like a case of rendering the position of the Chief Minister toothless and powerless. A case of taking Manipur for granted and this is something which has not gone down well with the people at all. Let Delhi show that it is intent on addressing the issue here honestly and with sincerity. Fix accountability. Start questioning why the missives from the office of the Chief Minister went unheeded.  It is only when responsibilities are fixed will Manipur accept that Delhi is intent on resolving the issue. There is so much that the Centre could have done if restoring normalcy in Manipur figures anywhere on its agenda. In the first place, the Prime Minister could have acknowledged the violence here earlier, in fact much earlier, secondly the position of the Chief Minister should be made clear else this would amount to disrespecting the sentiments of the people of Manipur. Delhi has done none of this and given the situation here, this has only given more room for conspiracy theories to do the round and this would certainly go against any design to usher in a semblance of normalcy here. Is this what Delhi want ?