New Delhi: It is election season, and no one knows it better than Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh.
Biren has tried to give a fresh twist to the law and order breakdown during the ethnic clash in the northeastern state by claiming that the video that sparked national outrage – of the two Kuki women being paraded naked in 2023 by a mob – was “made viral” by the opposition Congress.
Singh, who by dint of being Manipur’s home minister as well, is directly responsible for maintaining law and order in the state, claimed in Imphal on April 7 that the video was “made viral” by the opposition party, Congress, in order to “insult” Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Since the violence erupted on May 3, many have been trying to blame the BJP government and insult Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Any small issue was instigated to escalate it into violence,” Singh said at the ‘Yuva Sammelan’ held in Imphal on April 7.
“To bring the issue under control, union home minister Amit Shah himself visited and stayed in Manipur. However, the video was made viral on social media right before the start of parliamentary session (in June 2023) just to insult Prime Minister Narendra Modi and (the) BJP government with incomplete narratives” he claimed.
The video that came to public notice in June, 2023, two months after the incident, had compelled Prime Minister Modi to break his silence on the Manipur violence. Till then, even though several were killed in the ethnic conflict that erupted between the Meitei and the Kuki communities in the BJP-ruled state, Modi was found lacking in reaching out to the common people in their time of distress. Tens of thousands have by now taken shelter in relief camps and fled to neighbouring states in the deeply divided state.
Also read: Kuki Woman From Viral Video Speaks Out on Sexual Assault, Witnessing Murders
A day after the video went viral last June, Modi made a single statement condemning it. He has avoided speaking on Manipur inside the parliament. That he travelled twice to the Northeast during the violence and avoided visiting Manipur has rankled both the Kuki and the Meitei communities. Additionally, Modi’s steadfast refusal to meet the Meitei legislators even from his own party on the Manipur crisis in New Delhi has not gone down well with the majority community on whose votes the BJP rode into power in the last assembly elections with a never-before-seen majority. The bulk of the assembly constituencies of the state are in the Meitei-majority valley districts.
Barely two weeks before the Meitei-majority Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat was to see voting, Biren Singh’s attempt to shift blame on to the Congress can, therefore, be seen as an effort to divert voter attention from Modi’s nonchalance towards the ongoing Manipur issue.
Singh’s April 7 statement also tried to underplay the actual incident of the sexual violence as he laid more significance to their rescue after it. “…[N]o one questioned how the two women in the video were rescued,” he said.
The chief minister also equated the two victims rescued from the mob “by the youths and women of the Meitei community of the area” to “defaming the BJP government”.
“The two women were rescued by the youths and women of the Meitei community of the area, but the full narrative of the incident was avoided by those who wanted to defame the BJP government.”
Prodding the party workers not to “feel hesitant to campaign for the election” keeping the public discontent in mind (in the valley-districts), the chief minister said the campaign should be “issued-based”. He also pointed out the issues that the party workers could speak about to the Meitei voters. “The BJP government has fulfilled various long term demands of Manipur, such as the scrapping of FMR (with Myanmar), starting the construction work for border fencing, collection of data through biometric which is a first step of the NRC (National Registration of Citizens).”
In 2019, the Inner Manipur seat had gone to the BJP. In these elections though, the party had to change its candidate from the sitting MP and minister of state in the Modi government, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, as voters in the Lok Sabha constituency were upset with him for maintaining a silence on Manipur in the parliament. Kumar’s house was also set on fire by an angry mob.
