Normalcy : Still a far cry in ManipurLook beyond the border ?

It is obvious. Normalcy will take years to come. Perhaps it was in knowing this that it took more than two years for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pay a visit to the beleaguered State on September 13, 2025. Perhaps it was in knowing the complexity of the conflict that it took days for Union Home Minister Amit Shah to come to Manipur, that is on May 30, 2023 well after the place had descended into total chaos from the evening of May 3, 2023. Delhi has not openly acknowledged that the issue is complex but what is more worrying is its seeming hesitancy to deal with the matter as it ought to. In other words, Delhi seems to be still groping in the dark even after a lapse of more than two years and one reason could be geo-politics taking precedence over the mayhem inside its territory. From the beginning it was clear that the Centre had tried to call the shots under the cover of a ‘shadow Government’ and there was confusion over whether Article 355 had been imposed in the State or not. Neither was there any official confirmation nor official denial when reports started doing the round that Manipur had come under the said Article, but significant to note that just a day or two after Manipur went up in flames, Delhi appointed a Security Advisor who also doubled up as the Chairman of the Unified Command. A new DGP was appointed, not at the discretion of the Chief Minister, and it was the same when two Chief Secretaries were named to the post one after the other.  In between the Union Home Minister said that the then Chief Minister was co-operating while on the other hand the number one demand back then of the Kuki-Zo people was the replacement of the Chief Minister. The politics that continued was confusing and it appeared to make the matter all that more complex. So how did the ‘co-operating Chief Minister’ suddenly fell out of favour and was asked to give in his papers on February 9 followed by President’s Rule on February 13 ? These are some questions which some discerning people must be asking within themselves, but what cannot be discounted is the hands of politics that are obviously at play. In between, the Prime Minister refused to meet any political leaders from Manipur, despite the Delhi trips undertaken by some back then. The refusal to grant an audience to the political figures from Manipur, plus the silence, which was broken only when video footage of two girls being paraded naked surfaced in July, 2023 and the few hours visit on September 13, 2025,  perhaps sums up the shadow of the Prime Minister over Manipur since the evening of May 3, 2023.
The Prime Minister has come and gone back. Some Rightists have hailed the visit, clinically breaking down the significance of the visit. But the question is, will this help Manipur take the road to normalcy ? Why hasn’t any of the State BJP leaders opened up and gone to the media to hail the visit of the Prime Minister ? Or is hailing the visit in some public speech enough ? Or why hasn’t State BJP functionaries or former Ministers spelt out the unsaid but obvious in the Prime Minister’s address to the people, both at Kangla and Churachandpur ? Or is it a case of expecting the people to understand the unsaid part ? Either way Thambal Shanglen better spell out the unsaid but obvious (to them) points in the Prime Minister’s address to the people for it will work to their disadvantage in the ultimate analysis.  What is however starkly visible, even to the untrained eyes and to those who may not have anything to do with the present politics at play, is that no roadmap to take Manipur to the road of normalcy seems to have been charted out and this is where the observation at the beginning of this commentary that Delhi is still fumbling in the dark on how to deal with the situation. Why this is so is the question, but the failure to deal with the situation has thrown up so many theories doing the round. For instance what is the stand of the Union Home Ministry to the open declaration of the Kuki-Zo Council that free movement on the Highways is not guaranteed ? When something as crucial as cutting off the lifeline of the people is treated with silence, what is the politics at play here ? Or does one need to look beyond the international border to come anywhere near understanding this ? No wonder the situation has been dragging on for over two years.