Modi averse to invoke Article 356 in Manipur
Before his departure to the US & Egypt on June 20, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is understood to have conveyed to senior leaders in the party and government that ethnic violence must be brought under control at the earliest.
More than 100 people have died, houses torched and 50,000 people have been displaced in the ethnic violence for the past 50 days. While the Kuki legislators, including those from the BJP, have blamed the State police, the dominant Meiteis have accused the Assam Rifles of helping the Kuki insurgents.
Sources in the Modi dispensation say that during the past nine years, the PM had never imposed President's rule in any state. It is reminded that there was extreme pressure to dismiss the Mamata Banerjee government in the wake of massive violence in West Bengal. But Modi never invoked Article 356 to dismiss a legitimately elected government. Similar pressure was also there to impose President's rule in Jharkhand. But Modi did not buckle under these pressures.
It was stated that in Manipur, President's rule was imposed 10 times between 1967-2002 by various governments at the Centre. However, his government would help the state to restore normalcy as the President's rule is no solution.
The President's rule was invoked in a couple of states under Modi as the ruling Congress MLAs quit or withdrew support by the alliance partners. Arunachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir faced this situation. Even Delhi witnessed a brief stint of President's rule as Arvind Kejriwal himself quit in 2014 and no other party was in a position to form the government. The BJP is in a dilemma regarding the continuance of Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh as he is unable to contain the situation.
