Cracks Appear Within Manipur BJP As 9 MLAs Write To PM Modi Against Biren Singh Govt Amid Unrest

Union Home Minister Amit Shah with Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh during a meeting with senior officials of the Manipur Police, CAPFs and the Indian Army in Imphal.

Source : PTI

The northeastern state of Manipur is yet to recover from the ethnic violence that started on May 3 between the Meiteis and Kukis, and since then, people in the state have been waiting for normalcy to return as the clashes paralysed their lives with over 100 deaths and unrest continuing for more than 50 days now. And amid this, dissent has once again surfaced within the ruling BJP. Eight BJP MLAs and one Independent MLA, supporting the saffron government, have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is yet to speak on Manipur violence, that the state saffron government led by N Biren Singh has completely lost the trust of the common people. 

This coming from within the party is a major allegation as these are not MLAs belonging to the Opposition. Notably, four MLAs of these — Thokcham Radheshyam, Karam Shyam, P Brojen Singh and Khwairakpam Raghumani — had resigned from the government posts in April giving enough indications that they were unhappy with the Biren government.

What is important is that all these MLAs are Meiteis. Already Union Minister and MP from the Inner Manipur seat RK Ranjan Singh, whose residence was attacked by miscreants last week, also indirectly attacked his party government saying that law and order in the state has collapsed. On the other hand, Kuki MLAs, including those from the BJP, have already expressed their unhappiness with the government, particularly with Biren Singh.

BJP’s Failure To Act Against Biren Singh Complicating The Situation

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has called for an all party-meeting today. This meeting should have been called much before. Already, the Congress has said that it won't attend the meeting without the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, currently on a tour to the United States and Egypt. The CPM too has demanded that Chief Minister Biren Singh be removed. The Opposition isn’t wrong. What’s the use of an all-party meeting when the Prime Minister of the country hasn’t yet spoken about the Manipur violence? And, this silence is really disturbing.

In addition to this, BJP’s decision not to take action against Biren Singh, who faces strong criticisms from both Meitei and Kuki saffron MLAs, also raises many questions. Kuki organisations have already questioned the decision of the Centre to include Biren in the peace committee headed by the state governor Anusuiya Uikey, dealing a blow to the peace efforts initiated by the Centre.

If one observes the developments that have been taking place in Manipur, one thing becomes clear the BJP seems to be confused about whether to remove Biren Singh now or remove him after normalcy returned to the state. The party fears that removing Biren now will be a direct acceptance that the state BJP government has completely failed — so the party is currently favouring the status quo. It believes that the main task, for now, is to restore normalcy in the state. So the saffron party through its government at the Centre is trying to do so by getting directly involved in the state affairs, relegating the state government into a lesser role.

But by not removing Biren Singh, the BJP is only damaging its image, already damaged by the ethnic riots. It is only complicating the peace efforts in the strife-torn state. Already too much time has been wasted and it is high time for the saffron party to rise above electoral interests and think about the priorities of the state.

The Delimitation Draft To Keep Pot Of Polarisation Boiling In Assam?

This Tuesday, the Election Commission of India published the draft proposal on the delimitation of the assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies. Although the total number of assembly seats and Lok Sabha constituencies aren’t increased, the draft has proposed to increase the assembly seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes from 16 to 19 and from 8 to 9 for the Scheduled Castes. It also suggested reserving two parliamentary seats for the STs and one for the SCs. The draft has also redrawn the boundaries of the assembly and the parliamentary constituencies.

However, several Opposition parties — Congress, CPM, TMC and AIUDF — have rejected the draft proposal while according to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, this delimitation will safeguard the indigenous communities. The main opposition party, the Congress, has said that this draft will not serve the interests of the indigenous people, as claimed by the chief minister. On the other hand, Baddruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front has strictly criticised the draft by saying that it is against the interests of Muslims. It said that this draft will help both BJP and Congress and has strictly criticised the grand old party as an A-plus team of the BJP.

The developments suggest that the delimitation draft is likely to keep the pot of polarisation boiling in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year. AIUDF’s criticism of the draft by playing the Muslim card is likely to result in counter-polarisation in favour of the BJP — and if it happens, the grand old party may suffer an electoral setback in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. This could be the reason that while Congress has criticised the draft, it has avoided playing the Muslim card like the AIUDF. It doesn’t want to give any kind of advantage to the saffron party, which is going to play the indigenous card. 

The proposal to increase assembly seats to 15 from 12 in the Bodoland Territorial Council and one seat in the tribal-dominated district West Karbi Anglong district has been received well by the tribal communities. BJP’s ally United People’s Party Liberal, the ruling party of BTC, has welcomed the proposal of the draft.

Factionalism Continues In Tripura Congress

This Monday, former MLA Ashish Saha assumed the post of the president of the Congress in Tripura. His name was announced by All India Congress Committee General Secretary KC Venugopal last week. He replaced Birajit Sinha, MLA from the Kailashahar constituency, as the state Congress president.

However, the famous tradition of factionalism within the state Congress continues — and this became clear when Banamalipur MLA Gopal Roy, former state Congress president, gave a miss to the felicitation programme organised for the new party president in the state party headquarters. Not only this, shortly after Ashish Saha’s announcement as the party president, state party spokesperson Prasanta Bhattacharya tendered his resignation from the primary membership of the party. He was unhappy that a person like Ashish, who had left the party to join BJP via TMC, is appointed for the post.

The condition of the grand old party is not good. The reason it opened its account in this year’s assembly elections after drawing a blank in the 2018 state elections, was mostly because of its electoral partnership with CPM. The party is currently limited to some pockets in the state. Despite this poor state of the party, it is divided into different factions headed by Agartala MLA Sudip Roy Barman, Birajit Sinha and Gopal Roy. The new president Ashish Saha, who is seen as a shadow of Sudip, has a difficult task before him as he has to bring all factions together and strengthen the weak organisation ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. 

The author is a political commentator. 

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