Exclusive: How Biren invited his downfall with desperate bid to save CM’s chair

The telephone rang frantically, but the young BJP legislator from Manipur avoided answering the call.

Even a few days ago, it would have been unthinkable, because the caller at the other end was the once-all-powerful N Biren Singh, by then reduced to the caretaker chief minister of the trouble-torn state.

At that time, Biren was trying to reach the MLA amid a struggle for leadership in the BJP, on the eve of the promulgation of President’s Rule in the state.

“I am not taking his calls because I won’t be able to turn down his request if he directly approaches me for support. To a large extent, I owe my political career to him,” the MLA told The Federal at his official quarters in Imphal’s Babupara.

Also read: Manipur | Kuki-Zo MLAs express hope for peace after President's Rule

Undoing of Biren

That was the aura and influence of Biren Singh, the strongman of Manipur, often referred by his followers as ‘Pabung’, meaning 'father'.

The footballer-turned-journalist-turned politician was not too long ago even hailed as the one who had been trying to bridge the valley-hill divide with his government’s outreach initiative, "Go to hills”.

So much so that the Kuki National Organisation (KNO), an umbrella body of a group of militant outfits that claims to represent the community, issued a diktat to people in the hills to vote for the BJP in the 2022 Assembly elections in which the party made Biren Singh its chief ministerial face.

Kuki charge against Biren

Cut to the present.

He is seen by the highlander Kuki-Zo community as an agent provocateur behind the worst-ever ethnic carnage in the state that has killed over 260 people and left about 60,000 homeless in the past 21 months.

His image got a further beating when many from his own Meitei community, including some of his former aides, started harbouring the same feeling.

Also read: President’s Rule fails to seal Manipur BJP rift; rebels seek elected CM

Biren blamed for mess

“‘Biren na Manipur thugaiba ni’ (Biren is the one who destroyed Manipur),” alleged former Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha president Monohormayum Barish Sharma. The two fell out after Sharma was arrested in October 2023 for alleged violation of curfew, criminal intimidation, and attempted murder in connection with an incident of firing on a crowd.

Sharma even went to the extent of claiming that he had carried out “tasks” as a village volunteer following instructions of the former chief minister, who is now allegedly trying to eliminate him.

A video clip of his recent outburst during a confrontation with a group of women volunteers has gone viral.

Damning audio tape

The video was preceded by a leaked audio tape linking Biren to ethnic violence.

The Supreme Court earlier this month directed the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) to submit a report on the leaked tape on March 24, the next date of hearing.

The Manipur government termed the audio a fake but a private-run forensic lab, Truth Labs, tested the audio and found that the voice in it matched 93 per cent with that of Biren Singh.

Also read: Manipur ground report: Why's BJP playing politics with our future, asks woman activist

Ferment in BJP

The growing perception within a section of the BJP that the present crisis could not be resolved as long as Biren was at the helm was the immediate cause for the revolt in the party that ultimately forced him to resign last Sunday.

Those who know him from the close say that the rise and fall of Biren Singh was his own making.

The premise for his downfall, they say, was actually laid in the middle of his first tenure that was marked by two unsuccessful attempts to dislodge him from the hot seat.

MLAs unsettle Biren

His government came close to collapse, being reduced to a minority after nine MLAs supporting it withdrew support in 2020. It was the second attempt to dethrone him. A year earlier, he had survived a bigger challenge to his leadership when 17 of the BJP’s 21 MLAs sought to change the chief minister.

On both occasions, the BJP central leadership, particularly Union Home Minister Amit Shah, backed him to the hilt.

“The two back-to-back rebellions made him extremely suspicious of his own colleagues and even those loyal to him. He stopped trusting anyone for long and kept changing his close associates,” said an MLA who was loyal to Biren during the 2019 dissent.

Also read: Manipur ground report: What finally triggered President's Rule?

Politician-militant nexus

The seed of the extreme militarisation of the society Manipur is witnessing today was allegedly sowed around that time.

The charges of militant-political nexus, though, are not new in Manipur. In 1994, then Manipur governor VK Nayar accused the then chief minister Rishang Keishing of extending clandestine support to the NSCN-IM.

But it has never been so blatant, like the issuing of the diktat by the KNO to vote for the BJP. The KNO had also reportedly campaigned openly for the state’s ruling party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Revivalist group

The line between the state and the non-state actors was further blurred after the formation of the Arambai Tenggol (AT) as a revivalist organisation in 2020. Alarmed by the growth of Christianity in the state, it was formed to “bring people back” to Sanamahism—the indigenous faith of the Meiteis—which the RSS-BJP tries to project as an extension of Sanatan Dharma.

Manipur's titular king and BJP Rajya Sabha member Leishemba Sanajaoba, according to intelligence reports, is still the chairman of the outfit, which has morphed into an armed militia in its bid to “protect Meitei interest” in the ongoing conflict.

Members of the group were seen moving around the Imphal Valley with sophisticated weapons in their trademark black T-shirt with its insignia of three charging horsemen imprinted in red on the back.

Also read: Manipur: Crisis management plan enforced after Biren Singh’s resignation

Official concerns

An army official based in Imphal said the group has been patronised by Biren Singh. The two cases of attack on security forces and arms loot that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing against the outfit’s acting chief Korounganba Khuman could not progress much due to the “high-level political support” he enjoys.

The ambiguous relationship between the state and non-state actors during Biren Singh’s tenure, his critics say, was as much a counter-insurgency measure as it was to silence the Opposition.

The ploy was to promote the group as a flagbearer of Meitei culture and tradition to wrest the initiative from the militant groups, which have been waging armed movement against India for alleged colonization.

Congress and Biren

“They (the government) tried to suppress Meitei nationalism through such a ploy. But it backfired,” said Rajkumar Meghen, the former chairman of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), the oldest armed Meitei insurgent group.

The Congress used the state mechanism to suppress civilian movements directed against the government whereas the Biren Singh government mostly resorted to extrajudicial measures, pointed out a human rights activist who has been targeted by non-state actors for criticising the government’s role in the ethnic violence.

All-powerful AT

The AT emerged as a very powerful armed group during the ongoing conflict—to the extent of almost running a parallel power centre. The power it wielded was demonstrated on January 24 last year when it summoned all the Meitei MLAs for a meeting at the historic Kangla Fort. There, the group made them sign a six-point resolution.

Also read: Manipur: What lies ahead of Biren Singh who lived on the razor’s edge?

Three dissenting MLAs, including those from the BJP, were reportedly assaulted for objecting to its programme.

Manipur police records point to the involvement of the members of the group in kidnapping, extortion and snatching vehicles from the public and government officials, among others.

Growing clout

The group denies all the allegations. Nevertheless, the long rope given to it by the state government became a matter of concern for the central agencies.

It had been in the past few months repeatedly drawing the attention of the Union government towards the outfit’s activities, particularly the amassing of arms and the expansion of its cadre base, intelligence sources said.

A central intelligence agency report put the current cadre strength of the group at a whopping 60,000. This apart, militants of surrendered insurgent groups at times also operate under its banner, according to security officials based in Manipur.

Many BJP MLAs, too, became worried of the outfit’s growing influence as a parallel power centre.

Finally, Biren falls

The unlawful activities of the non-state combatants in addition to the government’s failure to restore peace were the double whammy that eventually turned a large section of the general public as well as MLAs even from the valley against Biren Singh.

It was the proverbial last straw for the man already pronounced a villain, ever since the outbreak of violence in May 2023, by the Kuki-Zo community, once his biggest supporter.