After N Biren Singh resigned from the post of Manipur’s Chief Minister on 9 February 2025, the President’s Rule was imposed in Manipur on the evening of 13 February 2025. This is the eleventh time the President’s Rule has been imposed in the state. However, the state assembly has been kept in suspended animation, meaning it can be revived once the political unrest subsides. His resignation comes amid the violence that has ripped the state for almost two years now. It may be observed that the Bharatiya Janata Party has faced revolts from its legislators. This was sharpened when violence broke out between the Meiteis and Kukis on 3 May 2023, with 10 of the party’s legislators from the Kuki, Zomi and Hmar groups demanding separate administrative arrangements outside Manipur.
The ten legislators labelled the N Biren Singh-led BJP government as the ‘Meitei government’, saying that he was siding with the Meiteis during the violence. In another sense, the BJP, as the majority party having thirty-two seats following the 2022 assembly election, was reduced to a minority status, and its legislators were divided on ethnic lines. This comes with communities from both sides of the divide demanding his resignation for his inability to bring an end to the violence. However, prolonging the violence can be linked to the BJP’s political agenda, which is deeply embedded in the Hindutva ideology. In all of these political developments, Manipur’s territorial integrity and the future of governance are uncertain, and what lies ahead for the state under the Hindutva regime require careful observation.
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N Biren Singh, accompanied by BJP Northeast in charge, Sambit Patra, party president A Sharda Devi and other legislators, submitted his resignation letter to incumbent Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla on 9 February 2025. The clip is available at: https://www.zoomnews.in/en/news-detail/manipur-cm-biren-singh-resigned-took-a-big-decision-after-meeting-shah.html
Reasons behind resignation
The reasons behind N Biren Singh’s resignation can be interpreted in three ways. First was the no-confidence motion proposed as a ‘Brahmastra Missile’ by the five legislators of the Indian National Congress. The proposed motion was not tested on the state assembly floor following N Biren Singh’s resignation. The incumbent governor, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, called the seventh assembly session of the twelfth Manipur Legislative Assembly and declared it ‘null and void’, which means it is invalid in law. The INC gains credibility in that the ‘Brahmastra Missile’ has hit one of the double engines of the BJP government in Delhi and Manipur.
Second has been safeguarding the BJP’s credibility at the national level. Just a few months after the violence, the Supreme Court of India said that law and order in the state had collapsed. The BJP's credibility in the state was in severe decline, with its ally, the Naga People’s Front, losing the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in both the Inner and Outer parliamentary constituencies to the INC. Despite the party’s deteriorating credibility, he remained CM. In other words, the BJP in Manipur faced all the blame and criticism, not the Centre. However, this has not lasted long due to BJP Manipur’s waning political hold of the state and the controversy over the leaked audio tape relating to N Biren Singh’s role in the violence. The BJP sensed that this would affect the party’s credibility at the Centre in the long run and eventually called for his resignation.
The third reason is a classic case of the BJP’s politics of prioritising national security over electoral benefits. In this case, above party lines, the BJP was projecting him as the protector of India’s national security since the violence broke out. Likewise, the BJP’s politics in the state have centred around the issue of the possible influx of illegal immigrants from civil war-torn Myanmar and formulating a policy for deportation. This comes with fencing along the Indo-Myanmar border and the revision of the Free Movement Regime border policy. These policies were mentioned in the resignation letter submitted to the incumbent Governor of Manipur on 9 February 2025, indicating that the policies would remain a top priority for the party.
Can N Biren Singh make a comeback?
Among the party’s supporters, there is a strong belief that N Biren Singh will return as the CM of Manipur. Despite revolts within the party over the post of CM and his style of governance, he still appears to have many supporters on the politics of indigeneity and immigration, which have taken centre stage in the state’s politics. That being said, the BJP’s failure to choose a new CM for the state indicates there is no choice other than for him to handle and address the multifaceted issues that have plagued the state.
Another reason could be the lack of determination among BJP and NPF legislators to take on the responsibility for handling the crisis. The party legislators have been advised by the political high command or decided within the party and its supporters, NPF, that he still has the aura and support of the people and should hold the post again. Additionally, he seems to be the only BJP legislator willing to run the state in line with Hindutva politics. His comeback may arise once the political unrest subsides and the suspended legislative assembly is prepared to be revived.
Moreover, the BJP appears to be aware of its moral stance, recognising that removing him would hurt the sentiments of Meitei voters, who constitute a significant electoral base. This is because a party like the BJP thrives on majoritarianism, a trend evident across Indian state elections. In Manipur, aligning with the political interests of the majority Meitei community is crucial for the party to maintain its electoral dominance, and he appears best suited to such politics. However, his return would require a strong and parallel political consensus among the party's divided legislators.
Manipur’s territorial integrity and Akhand Bharat
In these political
unfoldings, one concern to all Manipuris, particularly among the Meiteis, is the
question of territorial integrity and the future of Manipur’s governance. The
imposition of the President’s Rule has put Manipur, a state with elected representatives, at its lowest ebb. Politically, the state
has been mired by ethnic homeland demands from its dominant ethnic groups, the
Nagas and Kukis. Although the Nagas are not part of the violence, the Kukis,
since the outset of the violence, have been aggressively asserting their
demands in the form of separate administrative arrangements out of Manipur.
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A mural of Akhand Bharat in India’s new Parliament building. It stretches from modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. In some cases, it also stretches to Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia. The clip is available at: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/row-in-nepal-over-akhand-bharat-mural-in-indias-new-parliament/article66920940.ece
It appears that the BJP in the state, with the political support of the Meiteis, who have long stood to safeguard the state’s territorial integrity, has devised a political approach to confront the ethnic homeland demands from the two dominant ethnic groups that often define the state’s politics. This approach is deeply rooted in the politics of indigeneity, creating a mutually acceptable political environment for the Meiteis and Nagas of Manipur while safeguarding the state’s territorial integrity. This appears to have diffused the Naga demand for Nagalim by integrating all the Naga-inhabited areas in Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar.
Moreover, the BJP’s politics have infused ethnoreligious sentiments among Meiteis, making the absolute stand to defend the territorial integrity of the state as ‘sacred and inseparable geography.’ This amplifies the assertion of Akhand Bharat, an undivided Indian subcontinent first propounded by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and later by Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar, based on Hindu religious principles. The ideas of Savarkar and Golwalkar, the two icons of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the BJP, have served as the basis of the party’s politics across the country.
This assertion on the territorial integrity of Manipur becomes a powerful and subtle political device for geo-cultural and ethnic incorporation of the state, divided by the colonial legacies of administration. As such, it acts as an assimilationist politics of redefining the state’s various ethnic identities about what it means to be a Manipuri in the Indian state. What lies ahead for Manipur, a border state in Northeast India, is firmly anchored in Hindutva politics.
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