N Biren Singh hangs on to power, with a little help from New Delhi

In his latest interview with news agency ANI, Nongthombam Biren Singh (pictured) framed his outlook on Manipur, indicating a hardened stance on the ongoing ethnic conflict between the Meiteis and the Kukis. The Manipur chief minister, a Meitei from the Imphal valley, was quoted rejecting the tribes’ demand for a separate administrative authority. While stressing the multi-ethnic composition of the state, he said: “We are one. Manipur is a small state but we have 34 tribes. All of these 34 tribes have to live together ... As CM, I promise I won’t allow Manipur to break up ...” Singh, now in his second term in the top job, was clear about where his heart, politics, and interests lay. After a recent meeting with Amit Shah, Union home minister, in Delhi, his statement said while Shah had assured him he would “take maximum responsibility for the hill districts” — inhabited by the Kukis, Nagas, and other tribes — Singh would focus on “restoring peace” in the Imphal valley, where his kinsmen and kinswomen resided.

Singh’s overt defence of the Meiteis in the violent clashes, where one side was clearly disadvantaged, earned for him labels such as the “King of the Valley”. An Imphal-based veteran political commentator said: “It is difficult to replace him because if he is replaced, it will lead to a sense of defeat among the Meiteis, rightly or wrongly, and more chaos.” For Patricia Mukhim, Shillong Times editor, “Biren Singh is perceived as the only man who can deliver a future for the Meiteis because the community for a long time harboured resentment against the Kukis for taking away jobs through reservation and Valley land as well.”
 

Ironically, Singh did not start off as a polarising persona. In March 2017, when he put together a precarious government for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by breaking up the Congress and coaxing the support of the Naga People’s Front and the National People’s Party, he made it clear to the BJP that the budgetary allocations must factor in topographical discrepancies. He said the deprived hill districts must be developed as a priority. He even managed to impose an Inner Line Permit in Manipur, which restricted access to “outsiders” wanting to travel to the hills. He kept an open house for all communities.

The wheel turned a full circle. Today Singh labelled Kukis “Burmese” (Manipur shares a fairly porous border with Myanmar) and “illegal immigrants”. When the Kukis decided to lift their blockade and buy temporary peace with the Meiteis after meeting Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam chief minister and North-East Democratic Alliance convener, the fallout was more killing and arson.
 

“There is no scope for a compromise,” concluded Mukhim.
 

Singh, who is 62, started his career as a footballer who was recruited by the Border Security Force (BSF) after his skills at an exhibition match caught the attention of a coach from the BSF Jalandhar. The highpoint of his sporting tryst was beating Mohun Bagan and lifting the Durand Cup in 1981. In 1992, he started a daily in Manipuri, Naharolgi Thoudang. In 2000, he was jailed on sedition charges for carrying the speech of an activist allegedly close to a separatist outfit.
 

Singh debuted in politics in 2002 and won the Heingang Assembly seat as a Democratic Revolutionary People’s Party candidate. His canny instincts were apparent. He supported the Congress government from outside and later joined the party. The incumbent chief minister, Okram Ibobi Singh, mentored him and soon Singh became his troubleshooter, as he retained his seat in 2007 and 2012. The Singh-Ibobi relationship had shades of the Tarun Gogoi-Sarma equation in Assam.

Like Sarma, who quit the Congress because Gogoi allegedly promoted his son, Tarun, Singh revolted against Ibobi in 2017, accusing the Congress veteran of playing “dynastic” politics by fielding his wife and son in elections. He joined the BJP but in another twist of fate, Singh’s wife, SS Olish, is a BJP MLA as is his son-in-law RK Imo.
 

In March 2017, he brought the BJP to power for the first time in Manipur by splitting the Congress and bringing smaller parties on board. The Imphal-based political observer said: “He was lucky because most of the legislators were first-time MLAs just happy being in a government. They didn’t jostle for cabinet berths.” In March last year, Singh cruised to victory, securing for the BJP a comfortable majority.
 

However, his win was followed by four resignations in his dispensation. The inner rumblings re-surfaced when nine MLAs protested Singh’s leadership to the “high command” amid the prevailing turmoil. “We want a leader who functions in a democratic manner, works in the interest of the entire state, and has a vision for the youth,” a political source said. Another source questioned Singh’s perceived “success” and remarked: “Only time will tell what kind of a hero he is.”
 

Singh reinforced his “popularity” recently when he expressed a wish to resign, after which the Meiteis, especially women, were out on Imphal’s streets and seen tearing up his resignation missive. The political observer’s take was: “It was a charade enacted to manage the news on a day when Rahul Gandhi was in the state, visiting the relief camps.” The consensus in the political establishment was that Singh survived only because of New Delhi’s “blessings”.