The government was forced to clamp curfew in some districts along with Internet shutdown. That the rebels have called for a 10-day shut down in retaliation reflects the perilous law and order situation in the state
It appears it’s time for the chicken to come home to roost in Manipur. The long-delayed and ad hoc measures the Union government has taken have pushed the trouble-torn state into complete lawlessness, as is reflected in the widespread violence it has witnessed when the police took into custody the leader of a majority Meitei rebel group and his followers for alleged crimes including the abduction of senior police officer. The government was forced to clamp curfew in some districts along with Internet shutdown. That the rebels have called for a 10-day shut down in retaliation reflects the perilous law and order situation in the state.
The perpetrators of crimes the state has witnessed in the last two years and more must be brought to book, and that must be the first priority of the administration which is now under the President’s rule. It is not clear what forced the government to go after a militant organisation which was allegedly actively involved in the communal clashes in the state. Kanan Singh, the man in question, is a police constable under suspension and is the main suspect in the attack on the house of the additional superintendent of police and his subsequent kidnapping in February 2024.
It will be a welcome departure from the past under former chief minister Birendra Singh if the arrest is part of a programme to systematically apprehend all the troublemakers and bring them before the law. If it is indeed the case, the governor and the administration must stay their course and ensure that everyone is answerable before the law. If it is an arbitrary and ad hoc measure, as has been the experience of the past, it will only aggravate the precarious position in the state.
The governor and the administration, however, have to answer a question whether they had no clues about the potential trouble when they arrested the rebel leader and his followers. Governments and law-enforcement agencies normally take precautions when they go out and take such drastic steps.
The state has a failed intelligence machinery as was evidenced by the breaking out of clashes on May 3, 2023: it could neither anticipate the trouble nor help the state stop its spread. An excuse can be that it was working under a chief minister who was acting in a partisan manner. Now that he is gone, and a governor with a mandate to nurse the state back to its health in a democratic way is at the helm, the administration must endeavour to strengthen its network at the grass roots level.
The members of Parliament from the state have regularly communicated to the Houses, and through them to the rest of the country and the Union government, about the sense of alienation the people of Manipur have been made to feel. A member recently reminded the government that the Prime Minister of India does not require a visa to visit the state, obliquely referring to the refusal of Narendra Modi to visit the state in the last two years. It defies logic and democratic propriety. The Union government must ponder over the steps that can restore the people’s trust in the democratic institutions, including the office of the Prime Minister, if it wants the state to be back to normal. It is time that a comprehensive agenda that can address the woes of all sections of the people of the state is prepared and acted upon.
