Faster was the BJP’s preferred slogan as a party in power at the Centre and at the state would do it. Manipur being the test case, and the outcome: a rebuke. But the party has been in power all along in Imphal and Delhi and the state continues to bleed more than three years later.
Begin by admitting that you can’t do it. BJP accepted President’s rule to suspend its government, and Biren Singh stepped down following nearly 21 months of violence which had left more than 250 people dead. A year later, another ministry formed under Y. Khemchand Singh (who took charge on 4 February 2026) which was also BJP-led. One was to be a new beginning with a new face.
It has not. Human Rights Watch reports 34 deaths in the Naga-Kuki-Zo violence (February to early September). Nine more were killed in three hill districts in October. Later, locals laid two men out in front of the chief minister’s house, a sign of the dwindling hopes of these people. Five more people had been killed by 5th November following a mass rally on the 2nd in Imphal which had demanded peace.
The government’s answer to this is to shift responsibility for it to others. The chief minister says vested interests are trying to derail peace efforts. But security and borders are something else again – and it’s the governments that campaigned for competence that are responsible for it. The opposition has taken it a step further, with Congress calling for the chief minister’s resignation for “double engine” allegations for the management of civilian safety and Mallikarjun Kharge deriding the claim as long back.
The root cause of the failure is political. The chief minister’s trip to April to visit Senapati along NH-2 was also the first visit since 2023. The Government of a country where its own rulers cannot move freely for 3 years is not a government. Being addressed.
If the train doesn’t move, a double engine isn’t worth a bit. But all what they can do is to brand it, and the movement of Manipur has gotten stagnant. They should be held accountable, not just another slogan, for the people of the state.
