Manipur on the boil: A national crisis in the making

Manipur on the boil is India on the boil. Yet, it seems until now that it had been relegated to GoI's peripheral vision, and indulged as a 'key border state' to suit New Delhi's diplomatic and political narrative. For more than a year now, clashes between Kukis and Meiteis have roiled Manipur, part of a region that merged with India in 1949. Scores of people have been killed, thousands displaced and properties destroyed. On Nov 11, a fresh surge in conflict led to the abduction and deaths of six Meitei women and children in Jiribam.

Yet, BJP, both in New Delhi and Imphal, has failed miserably to address the situation. Is it incompetence, or apathy? Or both? The situation has reached such alarming heights that even RSS on Tuesday urged GoI to intervene. Despite his failure to control the violence, CM Biren Singh still holds the reins, even as ally National People's Party (NPP) has left the coalition - citing it will only support the government again if Singh is removed - and 11 of the 38 MLAs skipped a meeting he called to tackle the crisis on Monday. This is as good as a vote of no-confidence gets.

Singh is accused of taking sides in the conflict. Regardless of the truth behind this, perception dictates that he goes - even as others, like Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, are restrained by the Centre and central BJP from supposed 'meddling'. But to stop the tandav, three steps must be taken Asap: stop the violence at all costs; bring all stakeholders on board to rebuild trust; and have BJP address its costly factionalism and stop 'quietly' backing one side against the other. Manipur may be deemed 'peripheral' in national politics, but it has brought to centre stage the failure of the ruling party, a nationally dominant one at that.