Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has emerged from what his enemies have dubbed a manufactured play to face another day in the middle of his state’s extraordinary crisis. A day after new demonstrations erupted on the streets of Imphal, keeping it tense until late at night, Manipur awoke on Friday to unsubstantiated reports that Singh was considering resigning.
The information was first regarded with a grain of salt since the chief minister had resolutely kept his ground despite the fact that the violence had raged for over 50 days.
As the day progressed, the chief minister’s meeting with Governor Anusuiya Uikey at 1 p.m. was officially confirmed. Those close to the authority had already had a field day off-the-record giving the media, which was thirsty for information, their interpretations of what had happened.
Read More: National Doctors’ Day – 01 July 2023 INDIA: Importance and History
According to others, the chief minister was extremely affected by the way women demonstrators who walked to the streets the night before launched personal assaults on him. According to a few media sites, the home ministry has taken note of the fresh uptick in unrest.
The Centre gave the chief minister the choice of resigning or being fired, according to Imphal-based Sangai Express, citing sources. It went on to allege that “New Delhi” had contacted the chief minister several times and that the calls were “unusually harsh.”
In the early hours of Thursday, two Meitei village defence volunteers were killed in a gunfight apparently by Kuki terrorists at a location between Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts.
Thousands of women demonstrators thronged Khwairamband Ima Market in the evening, enraged by the government’s inability to safeguard “innocent lives.” They engaged in intense confrontations with police in an attempt to march with the body of one of the slain to the chief minister’s official mansion.
Police struggled to keep demonstrators who were fiercely critical of the administration, notably the chief minister, under control.
The nighttime demonstrations were a double whammy for the Biren Singh administration, which was already smarting from its “misadventure” of stopping Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from travelling by road to violence-stricken Churachandpur. Gandhi was obliged to go to the hill district in a helicopter.
The Congress leader’s convoy was stopped by police in Bishnupur, provoking massive protests from local residents. To disperse the throng, police had to use tear gas rounds.
In response to the police intervention, an enraged mob attempted to burn down the BJP office in Bishnupur.
The day’s events weakened the government’s already shaky position.
The home ministry recently reduced its responsibilities, declaring that it would take care of the hills while the state administration should focus solely on restoring calm in the valley, indicating that the Centre was losing trust in Biren Singh. Home Minister Amit Shah delivered it to the chief minister on June 25. The message was clear: the governor was living on borrowed time.
The outpouring of sympathy for Rahul and the massive rallies against the deaths showed that the administration had lost the trust of even the people in the valley.
Biren Singh, the volatile northeastern state’s chief minister since 2017, seemed to be nearing the end of his tenure. However, the 62-year-old footballer-turned-politician emerged unhurt from the controversy.
His detractors accuse him of pulling the wool over people’s eyes in order to survive the crisis by staging the resignation farce. As soon as word of his impending resignation spread, fans began to gather outside the chief minister’s official house, pleading with him to reconsider.
Meanwhile, the governor’s meeting with the chief minister has been rescheduled for 3 p.m. It gave the fans more time to throng the area.
Finally, as the chief minister emerged from his house to make his way to Raj Bhawan, only 400 metres away, to present his resignation, his cavalcade was halted by female supporters.
They began to argue that the chief minister should not resign. When a cabinet colleague of the chief minister was calming the throng, one female fan reportedly seized and tore the resignation paper. The ripped letter went viral, reinforcing the chief minister’s aim in case there was any question.
Surprisingly, the paper was precisely ripped, such that no word in the resignation letter was damaged or broken. In the midst of the “drama,” the chief minister returned to his home without attending Raj Bhawan.
“At this critical juncture,” he subsequently wrote, “I wish to clarify that I will not be resigning from the position of Chief Minister.”
Keisham Meghachandra Singh, head of the Manipur Congress, described the entire situation as “staged-managed to deflect the growing pressure on the chief minister to resign.”
