A Quick Critique on PM Modi’s Visit to Churachandpur, Manipur

This is in response to “The main takeaways from PM Modi’s speech in Churachandpur on 13th September 2025” circulated on social media.

PM Modi has shrewdly skirted all the core issues. He has paid platitudes only - saying that the “hill areas” have been neglected in the past etc. What is perplexing is his mention of demand from hill communities for ST status? Which tribe in the hill areas has not got ST status? Strange! All the hill tribes are ST already. The doubts is in the name used by the tribe, clan or ambiguity under the classification of “any” Kuki/Mizo tribes. Or is PM Modi alluding to the ST demand of the Meitei community by implying that they are hill tribes too? Well, hope not, as the Meitei are not hill people. They hate hills and have developed a liking recently to grab tribal lands.

The other platitudes include - appeal for peace and reconciliation, development and infrastructure projects, recognition of local hardship and resilience of the people, symbolic praises of land and people, promises for rail link and new airport (both already under construction), acknowledgement of challenges etc.

Why has PM Modi skirted the main issues? He apparently made frequent references to past neglect in infrastructure especially in hill districts. In that case, he knows that the main issue concerning Manipur is about “Equity”.

“Equity” has been missing since Manipur became a state. The tribes in “hill areas” (important to refer to hill districts as “hill areas” since it has constitutional sanctity under Article 371-C) has never got their due/fair share of development funds; government functionaries (if given a sizeable number are diverted to the valley districts); infrastructural assets, institutions, institutes of central and state level; assembly seats (delimitation exercise based on census 2001 which would have given 3 seats to “hill areas” not implemented in spite of Supreme Court direction); and ministerial berths (against a population of 41% tribes combined only 4 ministers given to tribal MLAs when it should have been at least 5 out of 12 with CM post always reserved for Meiteis). This needs to be addressed by carrying out systemic changes at both political and administrative levels to ensure “Equity” is dispensed to the deprived and neglected tribes living in “hill areas”.

The second issue is the diminishing “Trust Deficit” that has widen between the dominant community and the tribal people through the bias, partiality and chicanery seen starkly in the surreptitious handling of the writ petition in the Manipur High Court on ST status demand for Meitei community without following the established government rules and procedures and disregarding legal common sense. This case seems to indicate that the Chief Minister rode roughshod over the tribal ministers in the council of ministers by ignoring/not consulting/not seeking their official views to get a favourable order from the Manipur High Court when both state government and Union of India failed to offer comments to the writ petition or seek more time. It further appears that there was corroborative efforts between all present in court with all parties, solely comprising Meiteis and not a single Manipur tribal person, consenting to passing of order by the Court at motion state and on the first day of hearing. Further, the oral order passed on 27th March 2023 became public only when it was displayed in the website of Manipur High Court in the 19th of April 2023.

On the same issue of ST status demand for Meitei community, is the “Brute Majoritarianism” displayed by the blatant admission of the Meitei leadership regarding their demand for ST status by openly stating that the aim is to grab tribal lands in the “hill areas” of Manipur. It’s like "throwing down the gauntlet" at the tribes challengingly and daring them to see what they can do to stop them. Such belligerent behaviour has its risk of turning the demand into a “tribal vs non-tribal” conflict. The admission that they are for tribal land grab makes sense as the Meiteis are already SC and OBC and in the recent past have become IAS, IPS and other All India Services officers through reservation under the SC and OBC reservation quotas. It’s a fact that they don’t need ST reservation for government jobs. What is troubling is that the requirement to follow established procedures under the Lokur Committee criteria to become ST, adopt scientific approaches and adhere to government procedures/guidelines/processes is ignored and discarded signalling that they intend to get what they want “by hook or by crook”. They have displayed their capability to do that when they got a favourable Order from the Manipur High Court through chicanery, which was thankfully modified subsequently, but unfortunately sparked the ethnic conflict. Their boldness for ST status campaign based on emotional grounds create doubts in the mind of the tribes that the dominant community could be up to some tricks, including use of political and monetary clouts, considering their alleged past activities. The tribes may soon start to interpret such aggressive attacks on tribal rights as “Brute majoritarianism” of the dominant community to continue their hegemonic designs. The tribes are becoming weary and the fear of brute majoritarianism needs to be dispelled by carrying out a systemic change in the governmental mechanism, procedures and processes with transparency and accountability to ensure that all the issues discussed above are addressed by an “Oversight Committee” and “Implementing and Monitoring Committees” in the legislature by the “Hill Areas Committee” and in the administration at state, departmental and district levels.

As long as “Equity”, “Trust Deficit”, and “Brute Majoritarianism” remain unaddressed, it is difficult to assume that the conflict can be resolved through liberal pouring of projects and other developmental concessions.

Ngaranmi Shimray

New Delhi

(The writer can be contacted at: shimray2011@gmail.com)