On very Saturday, N Biren Singh, the Chief Minister of Manipur, came under fire after his official Twitter account posted a series of inflammatory tweets directed against social media users who had demanded his resignation. While the tweets were later removed, the Opposition and the tribal community accused the Chief Minister of exacerbating the already heightened ethnic tensions in the strife-stricken state.
The tweets, posted early on Saturday morning, come a day after it appeared that Singh had begun the process of stepping down as the Chief Minister of Manipur.
The state, which has been embroiled in ethnic clashes for almost two months, witnessed protests outside the BJP leader’s residence in Imphal on Friday, preventing him from walking to the Governor’s residence, which is 200 metres away. Singh later “confirmed” that he will not resign.
Prior to this, the CM shared his decision last Friday to resign from his position. In his words he said,“At this crucial juncture, I wish to clarify that I will not be resigning from the post of Chief Minister,”. He decided this after thousands of Meitei women gathered before his home and tore a sheet of paper that contained his resignation.
The Anonymous Twitter Accounts Tweeted Against CM N. Biren Singh
On the very tweet of CM confirming he will not resign now, there appeared a very long cold war on one social networking site, Twitter. The Twitter account belonging to Thang Kuki first replied to CM’s tweet that he should have resigned very earlier itself. Thang Kuki claimed that the Chief Minister should have resigned by now. Singh’s official account responded to the tweet by asking if the individual was from Manipur or Myanmar, accompanied by a laughing emojis, suggesting a close relationship between Manipuri Kukis and the ethnic group living across the international boundary.
Since May 3, the state of Manipur has been in a state of ethnic turmoil following the order of Manipur high court to recommend to the government to include Meiteis, which account for 53% of the total population in Manipur, in the list of scheduled tribes. This led to the protests of the tribal population, especially the Kukis. Tensions erupted across the state, resulting in sporadic violence. Since then, at least 117 people have lost their lives, over 300 have been injured, and almost 50,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
Singh belongs to the ruling Meitei tribe.
On another occasion, Singh responded to a tweet that seemed to draw a parallel between the two communities.
The tweet was posted by a Twitter user named Anthony Lunkim, who said he lives in a village outside Chandel district in Manipur. Lunkim’s profile read “Zalengam,” which translates to “Land of Freedom.” (Zalengam is the name of the proposed state by the Kukis, and one of the stated goals of a Kuki militia group.) “I can be in Myanmar,” Lunkim’s reply read.
Another user named Lal Hkip also told the CM that Myanmar also has a large Meitei population, but not all are called Burmese. “Meitei never ask [where] they are from in Myanmar,” Lal Hkip’s reply from CM’s account read.
In the fourth thread, a user named Saral Patel responded to a tweet asking the Chief Minister to send his resignation by fax to the Governor, saying there is no need to hand it over in person. “If you don’t know the situation on the ground, don’t beat around the bush. Mainland won’t understand the complexities of the Myanmar border state of India,” Saral Patel’s reply read.
HT was aware of the tweets posted by the Chief Minister’s official handle prior to their deletion hours later. An official of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), requesting anonymity, confirmed that the Chief Minister’s account is managed by a third party. It is unclear whether this third party is affiliated to the CMO, a government department, or a private party.
CM Officials Reply To These Tweets
“We don’t know about these posts or what happened. There’s a manager who takes care of the CM’s account. We’ll look into that at the end,” said one senior CMO.
The Manipur health minister, who also serves as the government’s spokesperson, said he did not know about the Twitter posts and would reply after consulting the officials involved. His reply is awaited.
The tribal groups claimed that the tweets revealed the chief minister, who they accused of spreading communal hatred in the midst of communal violence.
The Spokesperson of ITLF(Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum), Ginza Vualzong shared his thoughts which sound offensive as well. This ITLF is an integral as well as important of Kuki groups in Churachandpur, one of the districts of Manipur.
His statement Includes, “Chief minister N Biren Singh is still as communal as he used to be. Nothing has changed. He still considers the Kuki-Zo communities in Manipur as illegal immigrants. He still says we all are from Myanmar. There are many Meiteis in Myanmar too”.
