Manipur Continues To Burn Despite PM Modi's Balm Of Peace

It has been more than a week since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s long-awaited visit to Manipur, seen as a tentative first step towards resolving the crisis that has engulfed the Northeastern state ever since an ethnic civil war tore it apart more than two years ago. His personal appeal to both the warring protagonists—Kuki tribals living in the hills and the Metei people inhabiting the Imphal Valley—to make peace, not war, and the announcement of an economic package and development projects were meant to restore normalcy. Unfortunately, it is already feared that the visit may turn out to be just a symbolic gesture with both.

Less than a week after Modi travelled down the recently reopened Highway 2, the lifeline in Manipur that connects the hill areas with the Imphal Valley, unknown miscreants ambushed an army truck, killing two Assam Rifle jawans and injuring five others. There is now widespread tension across the state after the attack, the first of its kind against central forces since last year. On Sunday, the Committee on Tribal United (CoTU), an influential Kuki-Zo group in Kangpokpi district in the Sadr hills, announced a three-day economic blockade.

Even during the Prime Minister’s visit, the tension was visible. Hours before he reached the state, there was violence, as posters and banners welcoming him were torn down by Kuki protestors. Not long after he left, violence erupted again as rampaging Metei mobs torched the residence of a prominent Kuki leader and attacked other houses in the Churachandpur district, where just a day earlier the PM had issued an appeal for peace, listened to a group of schoolgirls singing traditional folk songs, and inaugurated a slew of development projects.

It has been 28 months since the first sparks in Churachandpur set off a conflagration that spread like wildfire across virtually the entire state. However, even after the belated imposition of the President’s Rule, embers continue to smoulder. Kukis remain confined to the hills, and Meitis to the valley. Neither dares to venture into the other’s territory. 

The state’s main lifeline, National Highway 2, was finally reopened on September 4 in anticipation of the PM’s visit, but hardly anyone dares to use it for fear of venturing into hostile ethnic areas. Since the bulk of economic activity is centred around Imphal, Kukis confined to the hills have lost sources of livelihood. 

One of the chief impediments to a mutually acceptable peace plan for both the ethnic groups is that there is a palpable lack of a leader in the state with sufficient stature and credibility to at least start a peace process that Kukis and Meteis can participate in. Former BJP chief minister, Biren Singh, has been widely discredited for his handling of the Manipur violence, and there was widespread relief among all local political parties, including the BJP, when he was finally forced to resign and President’s rule was imposed. 

Unfortunately, Biren Singh was seen at the forefront of the arrangements made for the prime ministerial visit, and this has added to the concern among local politicians and people about whether the central government is serious about rectifying the situation. But so far New Delhi has seemed to be reluctant in taking any major political step. No local leader has emerged with the goodwill of a majority of people in the state, which is desperate to get out of its present economic stagnation and political paralysis. 

With over 57,000 people displaced for over two years by ethnic clashes, housed in 280 relief camps across Manipur, it will be an impossible task for the government to return and rehabilitate them in their homes unless a political solution is found. There is also the problem of restricted movement and buffer zones that has led to economic stagnation and a permanent state of abnormality.

Modi must be worried that even his own local party legislators appeared disappointed that he did not meet them during the visit to apprise himself of the situation on the ground. BJP MLA Paolienlal Haokip, who represents Churachandpur, ground zero of the violence, in an interview with a news website after the visit, lamented that it had fallen short of his expectations. He said that while they did not expect the Prime Minister to come up with a readymade solution, Manipur had a political problem that needed a political resolution, and the least the BJP electoral representatives in the region had expected was at least a ten-minute meeting with their leader to discuss the problem and give their suggestions. 

Significantly, the BJP legislator, a Kuki leader, was openly distressed by the economic package and development projects, pointing out that they brought little benefit to the hill areas inhabited by the Kukis but were geared to develop Metei majority areas, particularly the state capital, Imphal. He warned this could further polarise relations between the two communities and lead to increased distrust in the government. All Kuki legislators, including those in the BJP, presented a memorandum to the Prime Minister, demanding an autonomous hill area union territory.

Modi did attempt an outreach across ethnic lines, listening patiently to victims from both communities in Churachandpur and Imphal who had been uprooted from their homes by the conflict. But as they pleaded for jobs, free movement, and a quick return to normalcy so that they could go back home, all he appeared to offer were words of sympathy and a promise that development would ease their problems.

No peace mission is complete without a roadmap for truth, reconciliation, and justice. What Manipur needed was a signal, flagging off the process for a political resolution of the issues that set fire to the state 28 months ago and left it bitterly divided along ethnic lines.

It is time for the Prime Minister to take some bold steps to put Manipur back on the rails.

Published on: Tuesday, September 23, 2025, 03:23 PM IST