At the height of the turmoil in Manipur last year, the Chief Justice of India had remarked that “apparently the provisions of the Indian Constitution do not seem to apply in Manipur.” Thereafter, the apex court had appointed a high-level committee to oversee developments and to monitor steps being taken, including the registration of 6,000 plus FIRs. On the court’s directive, the State had been quick to respond at least in two cases – notably those of the parading naked of two tribal girls by Meitei youth, and the abduction and subsequent killings of two Meitei students – a boy and a girl – by Kukis.

The culprits have since been booked; one of them in the latter case from a place as far away as Pune. But in matters relating to 200- plus deaths, thousands of houses burnt and over 60,000 people displaced, those deviating from the Constitutional path are still active. Here one is not talking about the gun-toting youngsters on either side or the odd men in uniform allowing ethnic affinity to override allegiance sworn to the State and the Constitution, but people in high places duly enjoined to safeguard the Constitution of India. To start with, we have the Chief Minister, the head of the government of the State who was duly sworn in by the Governor. He is on record stating that Article 355 of the Constitution of India has been invoked in the State.

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This statement is supported by the fact that Chief Minister N. Biren Singh has been stripped from his position as the Chairman of the Unified Command – the apex body comprising the Army, Para-Military Forces and the State Police to oversee the law and order situation in the State – and in his place one Kuldiep Singh was appointed as Security Advisor. Additionally, the Director General of Police was replaced without notice to the Chief Minister. Finding a landing place was Rajeeve Singh, a Tripura cadre IPS officer said to be a favourite of Kuldiep Singh. Then we have the Governor of Manipur, Anusuiya Uikey, who stated that Article 355 of the Constitution of India has not been invoked in Manipur, as the law and order situation in her State had not so completely broken that the Central government had to take charge of law and order.

She did not bother to explain the circumstances leading to the appointment of the Security Advisor as the Chairman of the Unified Command and appointment of the Director General of Police without notice to the State Government. It appears that Article 355 of the Constitution of India had been invoked in Manipur by proxy. Whether the Constitution has such provisions is for the court to examine. Then came the meeting on 17 June convened by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah at New Delhi’s North Block. Present were the Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Director of the Intelligence Bureau Tapan Kumar Deka, Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi, Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh, DGP Rajeeve Singh of Manipur, the Chief of Staff of the Indian Army General Manoj Pande and others dealing with the law and order situation.

And although the meeting was conveyed to discuss the law and order situation in Manipur, conspicuous by their absence was the Chief Minister of Manipur or any elected representative from Manipur. Law and Order is a State subject in the Constitution but the Chief Minister of the state, one belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party, was ignored despite the party having lost both parliamentary seats from the state. These acts suggest that in effect, not just Article 355 but also Article 356 – whereby the elected government is dismissed and President’s Rule imposed – has also been invoked by proxy.

The meeting is said to have deliberated upon the developments in Manipur at length and concluded that more troops would be stationed in the state, with orders to take action against anybody using violence, while initiating steps to commence talks between the two warring sides. But on the surface it appears that steps are planned to be taken to disarm the few thousand Meitei youth who had taken away guns from police armouries last year. Ignored for now seems to be any examination of the role of Assam Rifles, accused of bias for the Kukis. As early as January this year the Chief Minister’s office had notified the DGP about the impending attack by Kukis at Jiribam, the district bordering Assam. The input was kept under wraps.

Earlier this month, suspected militants beheaded a Meitei farmer and began attacking Meitei villages in the fringe area of the district. The Chief Minister was in New Delhi at that time and was scheduled to visit the district upon his return to Imphal. But his advance security team was ambushed by Kuki militants and the convoy had to turn back. CM Biren upon arrival at Imphal then decided not to venture to Jiribam for reasons best known to him. On the peace parleys, there will definitely be hardliners on both sides who would call for complete annihilation of the other as the only solution. But this reminds me of the Track-2 meetings the Meiteis had with the Nagas in 2000. Tension was running high then between the two indigenous communities of Manipur. Present as mediators were Lt.General V K Nayar (Rtd), former Governor of Manipur, Chaman Lal, former DGP of Nagaland and Jayant Madhav, former Chairman of the Assam Finance Corporation.

The Nagas of Nagaland were represented by Church leader Wati Aier, Gandhian Niketu Iralu, Rev. Shishak, Principal of Patkai College, while the Nagas from Manipur were represented by PA Thekho, then Editor of Horn Bill Express from Senapati and Naga academic Dr Jina Singkham. Representing the Meiteis were writer and author Pradip Phanjoubam, noted social commentator Dhanabir Laishram, Arun Irengbam, former Media Advisor to the Chief Minister, this writer and a former editor, now the current Chief Minister of Manipur, N. Biren Singh. The move initiated by former Consultant Editor of the Statesman, Sanjoy Hazarika, had three rounds of meetings – first at Shillong, then at Barapani and finally at Kaziranga. Both sides spoke their hearts out and a lot of goodwill was earned. We did not agree on anything but we were able to have a friendly football match at Senapati between the Meiteis and the Nagas. But the process broke the tension between the two sides. The rest is history but we broke the tension between the two sides. I am making this point to show that a start has to be made somewhere, sometime by somebody.

(The writer is a senior journalist with The Statesman.)