A fresh wave of violence in Manipur compelled the northeast Indian state’s chief minister to resign over the weekend as the almost two-year-old ethnic conflict raged on unabated.
N Biren Singh, senior member of prime minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party, announced that he had submitted his resignation to the governor on Sunday.
The resignation came just a day before the state legislative assembly was scheduled to go in session.
The state was now expected to be placed under the president’s rule, meaning that it would effectively be ruled directly by Mr Modi’s government.
In his resignation letter, Mr Singh thanked Mr Modi’s federal government for what he described as its efforts to safeguard Manipur’s interests and urged continued action to curb border infiltration and deport “illegal immigrants”.
The ethnic conflict in Manipur involving the majority Meitei community and the minority Kukis began in 2023 after the state’s High Court ordered the government to accept the Meitei demand for Scheduled Tribe status, which, if granted, would have extended economic benefits and job and education quotas meant for marginalised groups like the Kukis to the majority community.
The conflict has left more than 250 people dead so far.
Kuki groups accused Mr Singh, 64, of siding with his Meitei community and demanded his removal after the conflict started. His own allies grew increasingly critical as the conflict continued and several BJP lawmakers sought his resignation over his handling of the crisis.
International human rights organisations accused the state administration as well as Mr Modi’s government of allowing vigilante groups in the state to operate with impunity, stoking ethnic tensions, and failing to uphold law and order.
The BJP governments in New Delhi and Imphal “have utterly failed to end the violence and displacement and protect human rights in the state”, Amnesty International said last year.
