Latest revision as of 08:20, 19 November 2024

[edit] A biography

[edit] As in 2023

Esha Roy, June 16, 2023: The Indian Express

The surprise BJP choice for Chief Minister in 2017, when it formed a government in the state for the first time, Singh has had a tumultuous run. However, the Manipur crisis – among the worst the restive Northeast has seen in a while – is his biggest challenge yet.

Singh, 62, took an unusual road to politics. He first rose to eminence as a footballer, with his skills at an exhibition match bringing him to the attention of the coach of the BSF Jalandhar football team. Recruited as a professional player, he spent the next five years – 1979 to 84 – shuttling between Jalandhar and New Delhi and touring the country. In 1991, he played in the finals of the Durand Cup.

The passion for football extended to Singh’s personal life. He named the youngest of his three children after the Brazilian footballer Zikho, calling him Pele at home.

When Singh returned to Manipur after this exposure to the outside world as a player, he turned to journalism. He sold off a two-acre plot inherited from his father and started a newspaper called Thoudan, which quickly became popular.

By the late 90s, Manipur was in the grip of conflict and violence. Early 2000 saw the Malom killings by the Assam Rifles, in which 10 civilians were shot while waiting at a bus stop following a bomb blast nearby — this incident was the trigger for Irom Sharmila to begin her long hunger strike. In 2004, Manipur was swept up in protests over the Manorama rape and murder case, which saw a milestone protest by women against the Army by stripping their clothes.

In an earlier interview to The Indian Express, Singh had said the growing anger against the Indian security forces drove him to “do more than just report the news”, and prompted him to join politics.

In 2001, he sold his newspaper for Rs 2 lakh and, with the sale proceeds and donations from well-wishers, fought his first election the next year as an Independent candidate. His plank was the demand for a repeal of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the state.

In his third career turn too, Singh was almost an instant success, winning support of the public with his forthright views on the state’s issues. As he won his maiden election, long-standing Congress leader and then CM Okram Ibobi Singh was among those who took note. Ibobi brought him under his wings, and Singh leant support from outside to the Congress government.

Later, Biren Singh joined the Congress formally, and in the 2007 Assembly elections, fought on a Congress ticket. After he won, he was made Minister for Irrigation and Flood, and Sports.

Under the tutelage of Ibobi, Singh’s prominence continued to rise, as the CM’s right-hand man and trouble-shooter. Congress insiders attributed many decisions taken by Ibobi to Singh’s counsel.

However, after the next elections in 2012, their relations started to sour. Having come back to power with a thumping majority, Ibobi had to accommodate other Congressmen in his Cabinet, and Singh was dropped.

“At the time, Biren had no ambition of being Chief Minister, but he was disgruntled at being dropped from the Cabinet despite all the work he did for the CM,” a former Congress colleague says.

The leader adds that Ibobi was not in the wrong either, and that concerns about Singh’s competence as an administrator at the time, appear to be coming true now. “The fact is that Biren was not skilled in administration or governance, and simply did not have the knowledge to carry out the work of a senior minister. His part in the Congress government remained that of a trouble shooter. And this is one of the reasons why he has not been an adept CM. He simply doesn’t have the experience,’’ the leader says.

In 2016, Singh threatened to leave the Congress, taking with him 20 MLAs. According to Congress insiders, Ibobi skillfully averted this by delaying a reshuffle in his Cabinet, and then making Singh the vice-president and spokesperson of congress.

Singh was mollified, but not for long, and before the 2017 Assembly polls, he left the Congress and joined the BJP. One of the accusations he threw at Ibobi was “dynastic politics”, citing that both his son and wife had got Congress tickets for the elections. Now, of course, while Singh is CM, his wife S S Olish is a BJP MLA, and his son-in-law and former Congress leader R K Imo is an MLA plus a power centre few dare cross paths with.

Singh had also accused Ibobi of polarising and using divisive politics, creating a rift between the Nagas and the Meiteis. Ahead of the 2017 elections, he told The Indian Express: “If we don’t remedy this immediately, we will lose our tribal brothers and sisters. The BJP will be a unifying force for the people of Manipur. We will bring the tribals and the Meiteis back together again.”

Again, the irony is that Singh now stands accused of encouraging divisions between the Meiteis and Kukis, leading up to the current violence.

Even on the issue of AFSPA — which he was once a passionate opponent of — Singh’s government has been seen as differentiating between outfits. In 2017, he was seen as trying to justify the law while pointing to the “danger” posed by Kuki insurgent groups with which Suspension of Operations agreements had been signed by the Centre. He also accused the Indian government — led by the BJP by then – of giving “preferential treatment” to tribal insurgent groups such as the NSCN (I-M), compared to their approach towards Imphal valley-based Meitei insurgent groups.

At the same time, Singh, who headed a precarious government, cobbled together by the BJP by breaking the Congress and getting parties such as the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and National People’s Party (NPP) on board, was initially seen as sincere in his efforts to bring the Meiteis and tribals together as CM. In fact, before he joined the BJP, Singh was believed to have kept preconditions such as earmarking of the budget as per topographical needs, and providing the deprived hill districts a larger piece of the pie.

Throughout Singh’s first term as CM this desire to unite the sparring communities of Manipur found resonance – the most notable being his flagship ‘Go to the Hills’ campaign, which included holding festivals in the hill districts and promising to hold Cabinet meetings in the districts.

On the ground, the improvement in ties reflected in the virtual disappearance of bandhs, economic blockades and general strikes, which had marked daily life in Manipur — called sometimes by insurgent groups, at other times by disgruntled tribal organisations.

In a big victory, the Singh government managed to impose an Inner Line Permit in the state — putting restrictions on outsiders visiting the tribal areas — a demand that had in previous years been the fulcrum of many protests, often violent.

BJP leaders point out that a large number of Meiteis visited the hill districts during this time — unprecedented in Manipur. “Singh quickly became known as the people’s CM. His doors were open to everyone. He would hold camps across the state with officials from different departments such as irrigation or health, addressing concerns of the public, while also disseminating information regarding policies and government schemes. These were a huge hit,” says a party insider.

Ironically, as per this leader, over time, this is what also led to disgruntlement with the CM. “Biren was receiving thousands of complaints and representations, and it was physically impossible to resolve all the concerns. The frustration among the public started to grow.”

A critic of the CM and Congress working president Th Debabrata says the “public melas” were a good idea. “But the problem was that, afterwards, there was no follow-up whatsoever. After the melas ended, the officials would disappear and were no longer accessible to the people. No actual work was carried out.”

As public disenchantment grew, Singh’s rivals within the BJP and allies raised their heads – not unlike what Ibobi had faced. Singh faced two trust votes – in 2017 and 2020 — the first within days of forming his patchwork government. He won both, but the tensions never went away. Both the NPF and NPP at different times threatened to pull out of the Singh government, and had to be pacified by the Centre.

From within the party, Th Biswajit, a CM aspirant, was seen to be snapping at Singh’s heels. While the manoeuvring Singh learnt during his time with Ibobi helped him navigate the different rebellions, the CM also acquired a reputation gradually of being an authoritarian who did not take colleagues along.

This streak was visible in 2018, when a local journalist, Kishorechand Wangkhem, spent a year in jail under the NSA for uploading videos critical of the Singh government.

Then came the 2022 Assembly elections, and the BJP’s victory with a simple majority. Opposition leaders say that no longer reliant on allies, Singh became more aggressive and dictatorial. Recently, the editor of a local paper faced action for criticising Singh’s “war on drugs’’ campaign.

His belligerent verbal attacks on the SoO groups, statements against illegal immigrants from Myanmar (whom the Kukis ethnically identify with), and the Kuki community in general, had led to alarm among the 10 Kuki MLAs. As they landed in Delhi to raise their concerns with the Centre, five Meitei MLAs resigned from various departments, accusing Singh of “not giving them necessary powers”.

As things stand, even tribal leaders whom Singh had brought within the fold of the BJP have turned on him. They now say that his attempts to bridge the hill-valley divide were simply an attempt to consolidate power at a time when his position as CM was tenuous.

In another irony, now that he is at his most tenuous, Nongthombam Biren Singh is seen as the biggest block in that hill-valley unity.