Imphal: The conflict in Manipur, which has been ongoing for over three years now, between its three main ethnic communities—Meiteis, Kukis and Nagas—is “very confusing” and “complex” and, if it has to be solved, law and order should be handed to the state police forces with Central forces in support, former state chief minister N. Biren Singh told ThePrint in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
He said the security forces coming from outside, including the Central Reserve Police Force’s elite CoBRAS, face difficulties in identifying who is who because they don’t know the language or the difference between a Meitei or a Kuki, or between an old Kuki settler from Manipur and a Kuki who has come from Myanmar.
“We know because we can identify them by the way they speak the language. When they speak Manipuri, Hindi or English, we can identify them… whether he is an old Kuki settler from Manipur or has come from Myanmar or Bangladesh. But the security personnel coming from outside, they don’t know. They don’t know our language either, they don’t know the difference–how Myanmarese speak, how original old Kuki settlers speak,” the former chief minister said.
Handling such a situation, Singh said, should be only for the state government. “If we strengthen and empower the state police… the state police leads both in the [Imphal] Valley and the hills and the Central forces join hands to support them, then only the problem can be solved,” Singh said, adding in the same vein that he does not think it can be implemented as the state leadership “does not have the vision”.
“For this to happen, the leader should have clarity of mind. That’s how we can solve it. That kind of vision needs to be there. I don’t see right now,” he said in a veiled dig at the state leadership.
Following Singh’s resignation in February 2025, President’s Rule was imposed for a year. In February this year, Yumnam Khemchand Singh was appointed as the new chief minister.
The former chief minister said that he can’t say if the central Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership was unfair in removing him last February amid escalation in tension between the two ethnic communities.
“No, I can’t say if they have been unfair. The Central leaders wanted to see normalcy return to Manipur. So they might have thought that if I am here—because some community is blaming that the violence is because of Biren—that might be the reason for removing me, I think. Nothing else. They are giving peace a priority,” he said.
Singh said that he recently went to meet the Governor Ajay Bhalla and gave some of his suggestions to solve the Manipur issue, including empowering the state police to lead the charge. He said what is needed is a crackdown to flush out the armed militants, not just Kuki armed militants but armed cadres from all communities.
“Let us keep all the armed cadres from groups, which signed the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with the Centre inside their camps under lock and key. Other armed group cadres should then be identified. After this let us start combing operations and crackdown against whoever is in the Valley or the hills. Then only, after the military crackdown, once those illegal arms go…. then only peace will return,” Singh said.
Singh said that rehabilitation of Internally Displaced People (IDP) can start only then. “Many people are residing in camps, clubs, and community halls. They can’t lead their normal lives now,” he said.
Over 60,000 people have been displaced in Manipur following the ethnic violence that started in May 2023 between the Meites and the tribal Kuki-Zo community. While the Kuki-Zo left their homes in the valley and fled to the hill districts, inhabited by their community, the Meiteis returned to Imphal. After President’s Rule was imposed last February, there was a year of relative peace. But violence again started soon after the Khemchand Singh government took charge, but the conflict has shifted from Meiteis to the Kukis and Nagas this time around.
According to the former chief minister, the exercise to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) should start after this. “If we start NRC and if we identify those illegal immigrants and deport them, then automatically Manipur would be a peaceful state where all communities can co-exist,” he said, adding that if timely NRC was done this kind of present conflict could have been prevented.
The Centre had to recently postpone the Census exercise in the state following protests from two of the three main ethnic communities—the Meiteis and Nagas—to update the NRC first before conducting the Census.
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‘Have not called all Kukis illegal immigrants’
The former chief minister said that charges that he was anti-Kuki and evicted them from their land in the hills are not correct and have been “misinterpreted by some of the politicians with vested interests”.
“Being the chief minister of the state at that time, I have to take the blame,” he said, and added that those who know the ground reality know that it was his responsibility to protect the people from illegal immigrants.
“I did not call all the Kuki illegal immigrants. I only said that those who came inside Manipur due to the unrest in Myanmar are illegal,” Singh said.
“There was unrest in Myanmar in 1988 also, in 1962 also there was a military coup and earlier also there was a democratic movement by Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2021, there was unrest between the junta and the separatists. On all these occasions, many people from Myanmar crossed into Indian territory… I was talking about them, not for the whole Kukis. I used the word illegal immigrant for those from Bangladesh and Myanmar, not my original people,” he said.
The former chief minister stressed that he never evicted those who settled legally. “I only tried to preserve our protected and reserved forests, and tried to destroy the poppy plantation, which is widely cultivated in the state by razing the reserved forest. I did not touch any original village, any legal village…. I did not do anything against the Constitution,” he said.
He added, “As a chief minister, I only tried to protect my people from the Golden Triangle drug domination and illegal immigration. I am against them, not the original Kuki people, the Thadou or Naga, Meitei or Pangal (Muslims).”
‘Centre has done enough, but message not reaching’
Asked about the BJP’s prospects in the Assembly elections due early next year, Singh said that it is a “very difficult question.”
“Our weakness is whatever the BJP government at the Centre did for the welfare of the state, it is not reaching the ground,” he said, adding, “We have not been able to convey this to the people on the ground. Because we are fighting with each other. Some run after ministership, some run after money… the main issues get isolated.”
Elaborating, he said that Inner Line Permit (ILP) was a long due demand of Manipur people. “Before 1950, ILP was there. Manipur was restricted. But after 1950, that has been removed. Since then, Manipur people have been demanding but for the last 60-70 years, it was not given. It was the BJP government only which provided it in 2019 to protect the state, to protect the people, to protect the minorities.”
Similarly, it was only after the BJP government came at the Centre that the Ministry of Home Affairs scrapped the earlier Free Movement Regime (FMR) that allowed free access to any and everybody on both sides of the border – India and Myanmar – to go up to 16 km within each other’s territory freely.
“There were no restrictions. Any and everybody from both sides could go and come. No one checked. It was our government at the Centre that modified it. Now without biometric and visa, one cannot enter. It has been activated.”
Border fencing is also picking up pace now. Earlier, he said, there was fencing of just two or three km. “The rest was open. But now at least 60-70 km has been fenced and it will be completed within three years; the budget has already been sanctioned,” he said.
Singh added that now, even the Census has been postponed. “But we are not taking all this to the ground, not telling the people what all we are doing. If we can take it to the ground with facts, then nobody can stop BJP,” he said.
Singh said he believes that what is happening today is because of disunity among party colleagues in the state of Manipur, not because of Central leaders. “In the prevailing situation, in the Valley, peace has returned but internally people are not happy with the government. It will affect us in the elections. So, we should be very practical and transparent. At least 4-5 months are there. If we have to come to power, we have to be practical and transparent.”
Not been sidelined
The former chief minister said that it’s not correct to say that he has been sidelined in the party. “I don’t think I have been sidelined.”
He said when he joined the BJP from the Congress just ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections, Congress had 44 legislators but BJP had just one. “People told me at home.. Are you mad? Why are you joining a party with one Member of Legislative Assembly. What will you do? But I said, I want to save Manipur. I have seen Congress, they have been in power for long. I have seen Congress government now (Ibobi Singh’s time) but I am not fully satisfied. I will join BJP because I have trust and confidence in the leadership and only through them Manipur can be saved. That’s why I joined the BJP.”
Singh said that if NRC is started along with identification and deportation of illegal immigrants, the conflict can be easily settled. “The matter can be solved easily if our Kuki brothers, those who are old settlers, if they are sincere, it can be settled within. They have to accept the NRC, join hands to deport the illegal immigrants.”
Singh said that peace will come in Manipur. “The process has already started. But for that we should not compromise our dignity and surrender the state’s identity.”
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)