Prime Minister Narendra Modi must be feeling let down. Look at the newspaper headlines in the last few days only—Jiribam fire singes Imphal: Homes of CM Biren, MLAs targeted by mob; In Manipur, AFSPA back in 6 police station areas, Centre says situation there still volatile; CRPF camp attackers missed vehicle with LMG, died in hail of gunfire; Bodies of woman and two kids found in Manipur river. These fly in the face of PM Modi’s remarks about Manipur returning to normalcy. Not being able to respond to the Opposition’s barbs about him not visiting Manipur must hurt.
Incidentally, there is also an old clipping of The Indian Express editorial from 29 May 2004 suddenly floating on social media. It’s titled: “Modi, time to pack up”. Right-wing X-users are having a field day.
This coincidence serves as a reminder: If Modi didn’t quit as Gujarat chief minister post-Godhra riots, why would he sack the Manipur CM Biren Singh? Yes, there has been massive public outrage over rampant lawlessness over the last one-and-a-half years in Manipur. But can you even compare it with the outrage former CM Modi had to deal with—both from within his Bharatiya Janata Party and outside? At least, Biren Singh isn’t getting a raj dharma jibe from his Prime Minister.
A puppet CM
Since almost everyone wants Biren Singh to resign, let me play devil’s advocate. Yes, he should have stepped down, or been sacked, within days of the mayhem breaking out last May, especially when he was seen playing a partisan role in dealing with the Meitei militia, Arambai Tenggol. He should also have been sacked for being an agent provocateur—for publicly targeting the Kukis.
Within days after the violence broke out, the Centre or the Union Home Ministry had virtually taken over the reins of Manipur—sending former CRPF DG Kuldiep Singh as security advisor to the CM, repatriating Vineet Joshi from central deputation to take over as the state chief secretary and bringing Tripura cadre IPS officer Rajiv Singh as the Director General of Police. Ruling out the imposition of the President’s Rule in Manipur, Home Minister Amit Shah had said in the Lok Sabha: “Article 356 is imposed when the state government doesn’t cooperate during violence. We changed the DGP, they accepted the Centre’s DGP. We changed the chief secretary, they accepted the chief secretary we sent. The need to change a chief minister arises when he doesn’t cooperate.” Not much has changed since August 2023 when Shah made that statement.
Biren Singh has remained a puppet CM. While the Centre is virtually running Manipur from New Delhi, Singh provides a perfect cushion and a punching bag for all failures. He seems to be getting a bit restless in this role though. Now, he wants the control of the unified command.
On Saturday, the state government wrote to the Union Home Ministry, asking it to review and withdraw its decision about AFSPA imposition. Just think of a BJP CM asking Amit Shah to do a re-think about his decision. Singh has probably had enough of it. He obviously wants a say in running the affairs of his state.
Also read: I went bag, baggage, and baby to Manipur in 1971. IAS officers can hammer out a solution
The overburdened Home Minister
Practically speaking, CM Singh is probably the only one who can be blamed for being a failure. One can’t blame the Union Home Minister for what’s happening in Manipur. He has his hands full. Not just that, he has to be involved in making every major decision in the government of India. He has to run the BJP too. Frequent elections are a big drain on his time. Shah has to keep the party machinery right down to the booth level, well-oiled and running. He has to formulate the party’s strategy, and identify candidates in every single election from the Lok Sabha to the municipal and panchayat level across the country. He also has to play the role of a star campaigner as PM Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath do. This year, it was the Lok Sabha election first, then the Haryana assembly poll and now the crucial Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections. And Shah must already be thinking about next year’s Delhi election too.
It has always been like that for him. So much politics can be distracting. In 2021, when six Assam police personnel were killed by the Mizoram police, setting the two states on a collision course, the Home Minister couldn’t visit those states for weeks as political commitments kept him busy. As I wrote in my Politically Correct column on 2 August 2021, when Amit Shah was laying the foundation stones of projects and making speeches in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, police forces of Assam and Mizoram were confronting each other eyeball-to-eyeball along the border.
Let’s get one thing straight here though. There is no denying Amit Shah’s competence either as a minister or a party strategist. He is brilliant at his job. Ask home ministry officials. They start sweating at the very thought of having a meeting with him. Because they know that the Home Minister has already studied every single detail of the issue at hand. They can’t beat around the bush when he presides over a meeting. And he also has total clarity about what he wants to do and how. Many were warning of dire consequences and unrest in Kashmir after the removal of the special status under Article 370. Amit Shah proved them wrong. In fact, the next five years turned out to be one of the most peaceful periods in Kashmir’s history, as the people initially strongly resented before eventually coming to terms with the new reality. The credit for this goes to the Home Minister, of course.
Those who know him personally say that there is nothing Amit Shah can’t achieve if he sets his mind and body to it. He is a 24×7 workaholic. Yet, he is only human. And there are only 24 hours in a day. That should explain the lapses in Manipur or elsewhere.
The BJP needs Shah, of course. There is nobody who comes even close to him in terms of political acumen and drive to go to any extent to win. But India needs a full-time Home Minister more. Many challenges are rearing their heads. It’s not just Manipur. Terror attacks in Kashmir valley after the elections, preceded by many deadly ones in the Jammu region, are warning bells. Victories of radical elements like Engineer Rashid in Kashmir and Amritpal Singh and Sarabjit Singh in Punjab in the last Lok Sabha election show a trend that needs much closer scrutiny and monitoring. NSCN-IM or Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland is showing signs of restlessness over the delay in the implementation of the 2015 framework agreement.
What’s more worrisome is the NSCN-IM signalling its inclination to wade into the Manipur conflict. It has accused Arambai Tenggol of harassing and assaulting Christians. The change of regime in Bangladesh is also worrisome in terms of what it may mean to insurgent groups in the North East.
There are many, many other challenges that the home minister of a country as vast and complex as India must be alive to. That’s why it needs a full-time home minister, which Amit Shah is not. The BJP needs to spare him to focus completely on governance. For this to happen, the party needs to select a real national president, someone who would act like one and not always wait for Shah’s instructions. The country needs Shah more.
DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. He tweets @dksingh73. Views are personal.
(Edited Ratan Priya)
Home minister should either be home minister or party president.
India need him more than BJP.
We can’t bring the dark age of insurgency in northeast