The Making of a Tin-Pot Dictator: Assessing the Role of N. Biren Singh in the Ongoing State Sponsored Ethnic Cleansing Pogrom

Mr. Nongthombam Biren Singh, the present Chief Minister (CM) of Manipur, was a former footballer playing for BSF, and the editor of a Manipuri (Meitei language) daily newspaper, before switching over to politics in 2002. 

For more than two decades, Biren had been representing Heingang AC winning five consecutive state elections (2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022). As a shrewd politician, he was an integral part of Mr. Okram Ibobi Singh’s ministries during the 15-year Congress led government. However, in the later part of 2016, he left the Congress and joined the BJP, and after the 2017 state election, he was unexpectedly chosen as the first BJP CM, and repeated the same feat in 2022.

Apart from his professional career, Biren is known to be closely associated with the Valley Based Insurgent Groups (VBIGs), particularly RPF/PLA and CORCOM. So, it was obvious that he became the CM with their blessings despite enjoying the support of only 6 out of the 21 BJP MLAs in 2017.

Meanwhile, he is also widely regarded as the overall chief in command of Arambai Tenggol (AT), the Meitei militia outfit responsible for most of the state-sponsored violence since May 3, 2023. Mr. Pramod Singh, the chief of Meitei Leepun (ML), another militia group, openly claimed in a national television that they worship CM Biren. 

Being a former editor, Biren knows how to control the Imphal based media houses. In many cases, he is reported to have dictated News editors and even the topics chosen for TV discussions.

On a more personal note, Biren is also a known womaniser. He had a wife but is an open secret that Mrs. Olish Lamkang, the MLA of Chandel AC, is his unofficial second wife. Not only this, he is alleged to have begotten a son with the sister of his second wife. It was also widely talked about that in his maiden visit to one of the farthest district headquarters after becoming the CM, he told his companions that he had a girlfriend from there while he was a footballer.

During his first term as CM, Biren focused on silencing alternative voices within his own Meitei community. Anyone who spoke against him was slapped with various sections of IPC, and sometimes even NSA. The best example was the arrest of two senior journalists, Paojel Chaoba and Dhiren Sadokpam, in January 2021 under UAPA and sedition charges. Journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem and social activist Erendro Leichombam were also slapped NSA and other sections of the IPC for facebook posts multiple times!

Side by side, he has been grooming anti-social elements in the form of pseudo-CSOs such as Federation of Haomee (FoH), Kangleipak Kanba Lup (KKL), International Meitei Forum (IMF), World Meitei Council (WMC), etc. He has also been forming his private militias, AT and ML, along with some of his cohorts like Rajya Sabha MP Leishemba Sanajaoba, Khurai MLA and Minister L.Sushindro alias Yaima, Keirao MLA Lourembam Rameshwor Meetei, and others. Even BJYM Manipur was used more as a private militia than the youth wing of a ruling national party until Mr. Barish Sharma was removed from the post of President unceremoniously. The rise of such neo-nazi type militias sidelined the much older group like the Universal Friendship Organisation (UFO), often known among the Meiteis as marijuana smokers.

Biren might today portray himself as a person concerned over destruction of the environment and its ecosystem but since the early 1990s, he and his family, as timber traders or loggers, had been responsible for cutting-down most of the big trees in the hill districts, particularly Kangpokpi. He was also a known businessman dealing with marijuana (ganja) among the Kukis.

During his first tenure as CM, Biren also showed a fake urgency to reach out to the hills under various flagship programmes such as “Go to Hills”, “Go to Village”, etc. He also held cabinet meetings in the Hill districts' headquarters. Various pro-poor schemes including the CMHT were introduced with the intension of portraying the government in good light though it was designed to benefit private hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. 

Though all these steps were symbolic, it was able to portray Biren as the People’s CM. Whereas the Meiteis fondly called him “Pabung” (Uncle or Father), the then Tribal Minister and MLA of Thanlon, Pu Vungzagin Varte, labelled him as the second missionary of Lamka. Minister Nemcha Kipgen also referred to him as a godly figure for the hill people!

In hindsight, all these attempts were made to portray himself (Biren) and his party (BJP) as the only saviour of the state. The other reason was to protect the unnamed minority coalition ministry which Biren somehow managed to weave together to form the first BJP government. The members were drawn from NPP-4, NPF-4, LJP-1, Independent-1 and a Congress turncoat-1, apart from 21 BJP MLAs.

However, with the consolidation of the BJP at the Centre following the massive victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the true colour of Biren and his cohorts began to appear in full view. 

Slowly, the newly formed community based organisations like COCOMI and others began playing divisive politics between the Nagas and the Kukis, and an attempt was also made to further divide the already fragmented Kuki-Zo community. On the one hand, the colonial division of the Kukis into “Old” and “New” was openly promoted, and on the other, attempts were made to widen the gap between the majority Thadou-Kuki group and other smaller tribes. But they didn't know that all the Kuki-Chin-Mizo(Zo) tribes are connected by blood relationships unlike others who are united politically.

Playing the dirty politics of indigeneity, Meitei CSOs, activists, intellectuals and even academics have been constantly propagating the so-called Old Kukis as indigenous and the New Kukis as later immigrants. These Old Kukis, along with some of the Naga tribes, were also assigned the seven clans of the Meiteis to win over to them. This was done to show the world that they were once under the suzerainty of the Meitei kingdom! In other words, in the imagination of these neo-nazi ideologues, any tribe who are not part of these "seven clans" are not part of the idea of Manipur.

It may be mentioned that most of the tribes have more than seven clans, but the desire to be called indigenous was so strong that many of the tribes fell in the trap. It was one thing to despise the word Old Kuki for some, but a different one to accept the same designation if it offered the room to be called indigenous!

On one occasion, defying all logic, the Meitei CM formally declares the Tangkhuls and Meiteis as blood brothers though it was officially refuted by the apex bodies of the Tangkhul community. 

Moreover, the traditional rivalry as a result of British divide and rule policy has been ingeniously exploited to serve the ulterior motive of the state’s dominant community. It was also a well-known fact that Meitei CSOs and Meira Paibis have been frequenting Hebron during this term though the Nagas and Meiteis were at loggerheads till the early part of 2017.

In about 2021, as the plan reached an advanced stage, the communal state government began targeting the Kuki-Zo community in Imphal and its surrounding areas. Village chiefs were summoned to surrender land ownership related documents to prove that they are the real owners of their land. Most of the forests owned by them were also declared as Reserved Forest, Protected Forest, Wildlife Sanctuaries, and proposed sites for cultural heritage. In the same way, the low lying areas were to be protected under wetlands or paddy protection laws. With these, the innocent traditional tribal chiefs who were masters of their hills have suddenly become insecure.

In Imphal, too, many localities dominated by the Kuki-Zo were issued eviction orders, and were show-caused to submit their patas. Villages such as K.Songjang in Churachandpur, and three Churches in Tribal colony, Imphal, were forcibly evicted. In all these, no Naga villages or churches were touched! 

In the meantime, the Meitei civilians led by AT, ML, and BJYM, began frequenting the hills in hordes giving the traditional Meitei “Ching Kaba” (climbing the hills) for rituals a communal colour. Unfortunately, these “Ching Kalois” (those who climbed the hills) often indulge in thievery and destruction of huts in the jhoom fields, drinking alcohol, and on few occasions, resulted in unfortunate incidents involving scuffles between youths belonging to different ethnic groups. 

It may be recalled how Mr. Barish Sharma, the then President of BJYM Manipur, and his followers were seen openly wielding pistols and confronting innocent villagers en route to the hills. In spite of all these notoriety, the Kukis remained glued to their traditional humane values, Khankho, and even extended all possible help to a team of AT who met an accident.

During this phase, there has been constant campaign to demonise the Kuki-Zo community as illegal immigrants, drug dealers, poppy cultivators, forest encroachers, and what not. The level of hate campaign was so much so that within 2-3 years, almost the whole Meitei community was convinced to consider the Kuki-Zo people as non-indigenous and drug dealers even before the ongoing ethnic violence began.

It may be noted that the same technique was applied against the Nepalis (Gorkhas) of Manipur in the 1980s and the  Muslim (Meitei Pangal) community in the 1990s when there was an attempt to cleanse them from the soil of Manipur. The resulting riots sometime in the 1980s and May 1993 led to the death of more than a hundred lives and many properties destroyed. 

Another method used by Biren and his brigade was the random arrest of Kuki-Zo people for simple social media posts and comments. A youth from Kangpokpi was  summoned by the police with the instruction of the CM simply for using the word “Kuki Hills” in his facebook comment. Interestingly, not even a single person belonging to any other community was arrested or summoned during this period for mere social media comment.

With this background, the ongoing state-sponsored ethnic cleansing pogrom, which began on May 3, 2023, must be seen from the lens of this complex ethnic churning in the state in the last 3-4 years and beyond. The sooner the silent majority within the Meitei community realised the evil intention behind the current ethnic cleansing pogrom, the better it will be for the future of Manipur which they fondly called as Meitei Leipak, Meitrabak, Kangleipak, or Sanaleibak (Land of Jewels). The making of this mafia raj under a Tin-Pot Dictator, if it crystalised, will certainly be a doom for this two millennium centuries old civilization.

(Written for Thingkho le Malcha, on 24-01-2024, pp.10-12)