Imphal: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its face, and grand proclamations — a trillion-dollar economy, over 100 unicorns, 1 lakh start-ups, and a shining new India — as its message, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) electoral campaign in Manipur appears, at first glance, indistinguishable from its outreach elsewhere.
On the billboards lining Imphal’s streets, the BJP is promoting its overarching theme for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections — that Modi’s “guarantees” will strengthen “Bharat” on the global high table.
Portraits of Modi, with his resolute gaze staring down at passers-by, hang every few meters, like in every other part of poll-bound India touched by the BJP’s footprint. However, take a closer look and it becomes apparent that the party is acutely aware of the difficult questions confronting the PM — the BJP’s most prized asset — in the violence-hit state.
“Why has the prime minister of the county not bothered to check on us even once in the past one year?” asked Thaja, a volunteer at a relief camp for displaced Meiteis from the hill districts.
As a former vice-president of the BJP’s Manipur unit puts it: “The BJP’s slogan is sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka prayas (with everyone’s support and effort, everyone will develop together). Pehle do toh thik hai, par prayaas mai thodi kami reh gayi (the party has been lacking in terms of effort).”
“It is another matter that its candidates will still win due to its organisational strength and the weakness of the Congress,” he added.
The sentiment that “the BJP may still win but the PM has let us down” finds resonance across the Imphal Valley.
Polling in Manipur will be held in two phases, while the Inner Manipur seat will vote on 19 April, the Schedule Tribe–reserved Outer Manipur constituency will vote in two phases — 19 April and 26 April.
With less than two weeks remaining, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh himself is spearheading efforts to mitigate the potential fallout from the Prime Minister’s no-show in the state that has seen ethnic violence since last May, leading to numerous casualties, displacement of thousands, and businesses being crippled.
Over the past four months, Singh has been holding interactive sessions with large groups of people — be it Meira Paibis or women’s groups or youths — at his official residence to calm tempers and allay “misgivings” about the Centre’s position on the Manipur crisis. In the state, the violence between the dominant Meitei community and the Kuki tribals has escalated to the point where they can’t even think of venturing into each other’s territories.
“These are not political meetings he has been holding. It’s a part of his outreach efforts to restore peace,” a member of the CM’s core team said to ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Last week, the Congress complained to the office of Manipur Chief Electoral Officer, saying that these meetings being held by the CM were in violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
ThePrint sat in on one such closed-door session that Singh held Friday with people — all of whom were made to deposit their mobile phones at the entrance — from the Sugnu town of Kakching district that shares a border with the Kuki-majority Churachandpur, where violence broke out on 3 May last year before spreading across the state.
“Our fight was never against any community. It was against drugs, cultivation of poppy and ensuing deforestation which has, over the years, destroyed the ecology and caused heavy landslides,” began Singh, addressing the gathering, seated under tarpaulin sheets sprawled across the courtyard of the CM’s residence-cum-office.
Behind Singh was a giant LED screen, which read “Engaging youths, Meira Paibis, CSOs (civil society organisations), clubs on the current situation of Manipur”. The courtyard, doubling up as the meeting venue, is essentially a parking space for officials and visitors to the CM’s office.
Occasionally, audio visual slides were played on the screen, documenting a range of issues — from Singh’s “war on drugs” and Centre’s directions to identify illegal immigrants from Myanmar, to security arrangements made to protect people, and weaning cultivators away from poppy to other productive sources of farming.
But with elections less than two weeks away, can politics be far behind? Singh eventually brought up the obvious question on everyone’s mind.
Singh said, “They say Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not care about the plight of Manipuris.” But when he asked the gathering if they had watched the PM’s statements on Manipur made over the past year, most remained quiet, some muttering a “no”.
At this, Singh turned around and the screen behind him lit up with visuals of Modi addressing the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort on 15 August, 2023.
“The nation is with Manipur…The central and state governments are making all efforts for a solution and will continue to do so,” Modi was heard saying in the video clip.
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In the meeting
As the meeting continued, the CM’s “non-political” offering of a crash course on the prevailing situation in Manipur effectively turned into a campaign speech.
The CM also played a clip from Modi’s Lok Sabha speech made during the No Confidence motion brought by the Opposition in August last year, during which he had criticised the Congress over its “failures” to maintain peace in Manipur during its stint in government.
“Whose government was there in Manipur when the decision to not allow the national anthem in schools was taken? Whose government was there in Manipur when everything used to happen according to the wishes of insurgent organisations?” Modi said.
Next, Singh turned his spotlight on the announcement by the Ministry of Home Affairs, made in February, to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar. The move has been opposed by Nagaland and Mizoram as communities such as Mizos share ethnic ties with the Kuki Chin tribes residing in Myanmar.
“Mizoram and Nagaland are resisting the move. But the Centre has announced that it will do it for the largest interest of the region,” Singh said. Indeed, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to drive home the point that only a government run by it will be able to safeguard Manipur natives from “outsiders”.
Outside the CM’s residence, large billboards have been installed, announcing that “BJP has started fencing the Indo-Myanmar border to protect the indigenous people of Manipur”. The Centre’s announcement in this regard was met with widespread approval among Meiteis who have deep-rooted anxieties about the entry of illegal immigrants into the state.
Winding up the “interactive session”, Singh brought up the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the promise to implement which figures prominently in the BJP’s campaign pitch.
The Manipur assembly had in August 2022 passed a resolution demanding the implementation of NRC in the state to identify illegal immigrants and deport them. Last month, the assembly passed another resolution, underlining its commitment on this front.
Singh reminded the audience that Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh, the BJP’s candidate from the inner Manipur seat, was a part of the government committee set up to identify illegal immigrants. At the end, the audience clapped in approval.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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