Manipur under official PR, Governor issues ultimatum for arms surrender

Yambem Laba
Nudged by the resignation of N Biren Singh as the Chief Minister, Home Minister Amit Shah finally made up his mind on the 13th of  February and declared the imposition of President’s Rule under Article 356 of the Constitution. Two days earlier Governor Ajay Bhalla had sent his Secretary to Delhi to deliver his letter recommending President’s Rule in the State.
A communiqué from President Droupadi Murmu read :  “After receiving a report from Governor Ajay Bhalla  and after considering the report and other on information received by me, I am satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the Government of that State cannot be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of India”.
The move by the Centre came as the state BJP failed to come to a consensus on who to take over as Chief Minister and the Legislative Assembly could not be convened. Biren Singh had stepped down amidst massive dissent and a looming no-confidence motion threat from the Congress, which many from his own BJP legislators were believed to have been ready to support.
He had earlier gone to Delhi to seek an audience with HM Amit Shah, failing which he and his other supporters returned to Imphal via a ‘holy dip’ at the Prayagraj during the Mahakumbh Mela.
But the dip did not save him for he was soon summoned to Delhi along with the Governor and upon his return to Imphal drove to the Raj Bhawan accompanied by Sambit Patra, the BJP’s point man for the North East and Manipur, and tendered his resignation.
Unlike the resignation drama staged earlier where he allowed himself to be waylaid by a thousand-strong group of women who tore up his resignation letter in public, this was a solemn affair.
He must have been told in Delhi that the odds were stacked high against him this time. The revolting BJP MLAs  on one side and the impending case in the Supreme Court of India over an alleged recorded audio tape.
Prashant Bhushan, the petitioner’s lawyer in the case, claimed that according to a check at the Truth Laboratory, a highly credible establishment often consulted by the top judiciary and the Central Forensic Laboratoy, the voice on the tape matches 93 per cent with that of Biren Singh.
The SC has asked the Central Forensic Laboratory to submit its report and the matter is coming up soon in the Apex Court.
But Biren Singh appears not to be willing to take it lying down and as a last ditch effort he went into a huddle with his trusted followers, including Thongnam Biswajit, the man who tried to pull off an unsuccessful  coup d’etat on him in 2019 and the longest serving legislator of Manipur, Govindas Konthoujam, a man who had quit his post as President of the Congress Party to join the BJP on the eve of elections in 2022. Both are strong contenders for the top post.
The camp was earlier located at the Chief Ministerial bungalow but after President’s Rule was declared it has since shifted.
Ranged on the other side is the camp of the Assembly Speaker, Thokchom Satyabrata Singh. It includes five JD (U) legislators who had earlier jumped ship and had latched onto to the BJP bandwagon in 2022  and are now awaiting their fate as their disqualification process is now over in the Speaker’s tribunal, and the verdict has been kept in reserve.
The other two contenders are Yuman Khemchand, the Rural Development Minister, and the first man to speak out against Biren Singh openly whilst he was the Chief Minister.
The dark horse is former policeman and Minister Thokchom Radheshyam, MLA from Heirok.
Sambit Patra had, following Biren Singh’s resignation, camped in Imphal for four days and had met all the dissident leaders of the BJP trying to work a consensus amongst them but had failed in his attempt and soon left for the capital.
It was then expected that Manipur would get a new Chief Minister after PM Narendra returned from the USA and announced his picks for the top post in the State and in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, which the BJP had swept in the Assembly election held earlier in the month. While Delhi got its new CM, there was not  even a murmur, leave aside a mention, for Manipur.
What apparently the Saffron Brigade HQs wanted was a blank cheque for them to fill in the name of the Chief Minister to be.
It was perhaps on this note that the leaders started calling on Manipur BJP chief Sharda Devi to work out a consensus.
Amid all the political machinations, meanwhile, Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla has begun cracking his whip. He has already held office in the Old Secretariat and taken over two rooms earlier occupied by Ministers.
He has also announced that thrice a week he will be sitting in the Scretariat and hold his durbar there.
This is something which no Governor in the State has done during the 11 occasions that Manipur had been placed under President’s Rule.
He then made the first move. Through advertisements inserted in the local dailies, he asked all those in possession of illegal firearms to surrender them within seven days.
His message was simple and clear that those who give up their firearms would be left scot free and those who do not would have to face the music after the seven-day grace period.
A crackdown has also begun both in the hills and valleys with numerous arrests being made.
The response to the call for the surrender of arms have also met with a positive response both in the valley as well in the hills.
Surrenders have been made both in Churachandpur as well as in Kakching districts  and some 26 members of the Arambai Tenggol, the Meitei militia group, were rounded up but later released.
The message was loud and clear. Either fall in line or face the music.
Some 6000 firearms  and lakhs of rounds of ammunition were looted from police armouries in mid-2023 during which not much resistance were put up.
This, plus the various other sophisticated weapons brought in from Myanmar, most of them with the Kuki militants, are also to be accounted for.
The Rajya Sabha MP Leishemba Sanajaoba had described them Arambai Tenggol as being neither Anti-National nor Anti-India but had merely defended the unguarded Meitei villages left to fend for themselves  by the forces of the State.
Meanwhile the NIA had informed the NIA Court that more than 40 bombs were dropped from drones on Meitei villages by the Kuki militants at Kadangband and Koutruk villages in Imphal West District.
The NIA also revealed the names of two businessmen from Delhi who are alleged to have supplied the drones to one Khaigoulen Kipgen of Motbung in Kangpokpi District.
Interestingly this is the 11th spell of President’s Rule that Manipur has seen since 1967.

The Statesman