Senior advisers want decisive measures taken, including replacing top officials with a new leadership.
New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah, known for his strict, results-oriented approach, faces growing challenges as police and security agencies fail to control or prevent the ongoing violence in Manipur which shares its southern boundary with the country of Myanmar.
This has raised uncomfortable questions about the effectiveness of top police and Centre appointed officials in key positions within the state.
Shah, who was campaigning for the Maharashtra elections, had to abruptly cancel his plans and return to Delhi on Sunday to convene an urgent meeting with officials in response to the escalating violence in Manipur, which has been simmering since May last year.
This marks the first time in his long tenure as Home Minister that Shah has had to alter his schedule on such short notice. The campaigning for the Maharashtra elections, scheduled for 20 November, ends today.
The latest wave of violence in Manipur began on 7 November, when members of an armed group allegedly raped a woman from the Kuki community and set her on fire in Jiribam district. Four days later, a police station and a relief camp housing Meitei refugees were attacked. The Meitei community blamed Kuki groups for the assault. In the aftermath, six people—a grandmother, her two daughters, and three grandchildren—went missing. During the same attack, ten alleged Kuki terrorists were reportedly killed in retaliatory firing by the security forces. Later, Meitei groups claimed the bodies of the six missing individuals were recovered from various locations.
Officials said the situation in the state was sensitive, with armed groups from both the Kuki and Meitei communities in a revenge mode.
On Monday, in a sign of how the opposition will try to hold the government accountable, the Congress party demanded the resignations of Shah and Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh. They also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the state and convene an all-party meeting ahead of the Parliament session starting on 25 November.
Official sources told The Sunday Guardian that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is closely monitoring the situation and has expressed concern over the failure of local officials to control the violence, despite receiving full support from the MHA. After a meeting with officials on Sunday, Shah is scheduled to meet more officials today to understand the reasons behind the ongoing crisis in the state. Shah has reportedly instructed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe the recent incidents, which signals the MHA’s lack of confidence in local officials.
Senior retired officials with experience handling such crises have advised Shah to take decisive measures, including replacing top officials with a new leadership. According to them, an efficient security apparatus only functions effectively when it has both the support and the threat of administrative action from the top. In Manipur, they argue, the inability of officials to contain the violence, despite the MHA’s support, highlights their inefficiency and it was important to remove them and give a stern message to others. So far, no accountability has been fixed on these officials.
Shah, unlike his predecessors, is known for his no-nonsense approach to security and policing. Given the dire situation in Manipur, which has already resulted in over 220 deaths and garnered international attention, this approach needs to be swiftly implemented to restore public confidence in the government.