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The Meitei Voices From Manipur Who Paid the Price For Criticising Biren Singh
New Delhi: This June 22, a low intensity bomb exploded near the residence of the former Manipur deputy chief minister Y. Joykumar. Police search unearthed another bomb, 'a battery-fitted' one, hidden at a meira shang (a public shed) near his house.
Local news reports stated that the bomb was suspected to have been planted at the location by 'militants'. The explosive might have been triggered remotely, according to the police.
Though no one was injured, the fact that the bombs were planted on the busy DC Road of Imphal in an afternoon has angered the residents of the area. Local women carried out a sit-in protest urging 'all groups' to 'avoid actions that could put the lives of innocent civilian in danger.'
For over two years now, Manipur has been under the cloud of an ethnic conflict. It also means that the two communities directly identified with, and affected by, that conflict – the Kukis and the Meiteis – don't usually step into areas (districts) where they are not in a majority for the fear of coming under communal attack.
Even though President's Rule has been clamped in February, that 'buffer zone' between the hill and the valley districts of the border state – a byproduct of that conflict – has not been lifted. Incidents of violence, like the bomb blast on June 22 at Imphal, and one in Churachandpur in April, continue.
With none criss-crossing through each other's 'territories', the sit-in protesters in Imphal were essentially urging 'all groups' (read militants/armed militia) belonging only to the valley districts – areas where the Meitei community is in a majority. They were urging the armed groups within their own community not to target them, and other civilians.
As such, the conflict has been between the Kukis and the Meities, but it would be ingenuous of anyone to look at it merely as a black and white case where the division has been firmed up only on ethnic lines.
Voices questioning N. Biren Singh face threats and physical attacks
Many political and civil society voices within the Meitei community who have questioned the chief minister (now former) N. Biren Singh about the conflict that had unfolded under his watch; some expressing concern at the unchallenged power enjoyed by an armed militia like the Arambai Tenggol formed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP L. Sanajaoba, and seen to be backed by Singh as the chief minister, have faced continuous threats and physical attacks – so much so that some such voices have to leave their home state, lest their houses would be burnt; their safety not guaranteed by Manipur Police. Till recently, Biren Singh was also the state's home minister.
By now, it is well-known that noted Imphal-based human rights activist Babloo Loitongbam had to leave home for speaking up after he gave an interview to a Newsclick journalist in Imphal during the ethnic conflict in 2023.
In the interview, Loitongbam had pointed fingers at Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun for the violence unleashed on the Kuki residents in the valley areas. After the interview, he was accused of bringing a bad name to the Meitei community; his house was vandalised and he was forced to issue an apology. Even after he had left Imphal, in September 2024, at least 50 people from Meitei Leepun had landed up at his office-cum-house and threatened his family. His ageing father was at the house then.
It has been two years now that Loitongbam, an important civil society voice from Manipur who also was the force behind the Supreme Court taking note of 1,528 'fake' encounters in that north-eastern state, has to stay in self exile in Delhi and elsewhere. Those 'fake' encounters carried out by security forces in Manipur over a period of time under the cover of Armed Forces (Special Powers ) Act, were mostly on men from the Meitei community.
It was an important intervention for the conflict-ridden state, and for the community in general which has been bearing the brunt of the enduring conflict in that state. And yet, Loitongbam has to stay away from his family at Imphal now because of the direct threats to him and his family by radical groups like Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, with state police unable to give him protection.
Yet another example of such a self-exile from the Meitei community during the ethnic conflict is 68-year-old Nabashyam Heigrujan, chairman of the Meitei World Council. The website of the Imphal-based Council describes itself as a 'movement' that 'envisages the re-awakening and rejuvenation of the Meetei people through conscious collective efforts for social advancement, the pursuit of happiness and reclaiming our instruments of humanity to achieve our cause for a dignified life.' The Council bats for granting Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community.
Though Nabashyam, who also taught at the Imphal College, is now a civil society activist, in 2017, he had contested the state elections, unsuccessfully, as a candidate of the Trinamool Congress. After he moved to Delhi in mid-2024, Nabashyam, in an interview to The Wire, had categorically stated that the Biren Singh government 'could have controlled' the situation on May 3, 2023, but it didn't.
Also Read: Manipur Tapes: CM's Brother, Arambai Tenggol Founder's Threats To 'Traitors' Who Leaked Tapes to 'Enemy' Contradict Biren's 'Doctored' Claim
He had also said that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi had wanted to restore order and peace in Manipur, he could have done it 'in 24 hours buts has failed to do so'.
On asked why he had to leave Imphal for good last year, Nabashyam told this correspondent, 'My only mistake seemed to be that I took to social media platform X last year to say that the then chief minister Biren Singh was responsible for what is happening in Manipur. As the CM, it was his duty to maintain law and order in my state. I spoke up. And since that day, my life has not remained the same."
"Twice, armed thugs came to my house in Imphal to threaten me. An FIR was also filed against me on false charges. I finally had to seek bail from the court. I realised I will have to self-exile myself. So, in July 2024, I shifted base to Delhi while my wife has remained in Imphal. Because of that tweet, I am separated from my family,' Nabashyam had added.
Nabashyam said, 'Even in Delhi, the address was somehow found and three thugs were sent to threaten me so that I don't speak against Biren Singh.'
'It is only money power. In Manipur, if you give money today, it is not difficult to take one's life.'
On reminding him that there is President's Rule in the state, he replied, 'There is no popular government in Manipur yet; the situation is still fluid. Singh may not be the chief minister anymore, but he is still very powerful. He has money power. It is not safe for me to return home as yet.'
When armed group 'close to Singh' picked up veteran journalist
This correspondent reached out to veteran journalist Laba Yambem who was picked up from his residence in Imphal by militants belonging to the United National Liberation Front (Pambei) just a day after Biren Singh had to step down as the chief minister this past February. His offence was, speaking up against a militant group from the Meitei community which had, in November 2023, signed a peace agreement with the Modi government, facilitated by Biren Singh.
The group is seen 'close to Singh' in the state. Laba had stated on a local television channel in Imphal then the need for the government to control the outfit, which is overground with arms even after having signed the peace deal. Laba had to eventually upload a video, taking back his words as the price for his freedom.
Considered a vocal critic of Biren Singh, the journalist who contributes to The Statesman, was also arrested in October 2024 in a case which he had categorically called 'fake'. Some months ago, he had also filed a petition on phone tapping with the National Human Rights Commission.
Laba recounted, 'A lot of things have happened before that abduction in February. Just days after the ethnic conflict broke out, I had alleged that the victory of Biren Singh's second wife from the Chandel assembly seat in 2022 was done with help of Kuki militants. It was confirmed to me by one of their top leaders. I had alleged that it was the reason why Biren Singh did not act against Kuki boys forming part of the May 3 2023 rally with M-16 rifles which eventually led to the violence."
"The news was published in Sangai Express, which under the pressure of the chief minister, also carried an apology for that story. In September 2024, at around 3.30 am, my house in Imphal came under heavy gun fire just because I had issued a statement that day to the effect that Biren is not Manipur and that Manipur is not Biren and the choice is before the people of Manipur," said Laba.
"Then, in November, 2024, at least 30 armed men barged into my residence and at gunpoint directed me to remove a Facebook post which I had uploaded that day. I had immediately informed the police but it took them one month to take up the investigation. The point is, the room for a free and fair discussion on any topic relating to the state and society no longer exists in Manipur,' Laba added.
He then repeated what Nabashyam had told The Wire, 'Biren Singh is no longer in power but the disruption done to the body polity of the state remains.'
Prior to joining politics, Biren Singh was a fellow journalist. In Imphal, a well-known story goes that once, Singh, as a journalist, was 'summoned' by the Meitei militant group, UNLF, along with some others, a practice long endured by many in that state. Singh was asked to stay back by the banned armed group while all others were allowed to leave.
'It was all thanks to Pradip Panjhoubham (then the editor of the Imphal Free Press) who insisted that since they came together, they should leave together. He was allowed to return but the newspaper he headed then was banned from publishing (by the militants),' Laba recalled.
He also added, 'Finally, it was me who did the negotiations to ensure that the publication of that paper was resumed. I cooked lunch and invited everyone home to ensure that the compromise between UNLF, Biren Singh who was its editor, and the publisher David went through.'
Inspite of such threats, Laba, though, has stayed put in Imphal. On asked about it, he quoted Shakespeare, 'I returned from Delhi in 1983 because it's my homeland, my country. I intend to stay here because as William Shakespeare had famously said in Macbeth, 'Come what may, time and hour runs through the roughest day.''
Yet another person who has chosen to continue staying in Imphal, even though she has been relentlessly threatened by armed militias allegedly close to powers be, is former decorated police officer Thonoujam Brinda. During the conflict, she came across as a powerful voice in the valley areas to have questioned the chief minister about his claim about drug peddling only by the Kuki community.
That she particularly chose to speak up about Singh as the chief minister 'asking' her to not go after a drug 'king pin' from the Kuki community in 2020 even though he was caught with contraband by her team, made her a target for groups like Meitei Leepun.
'Singh is using brute force as a means to silence his critics'
Though not all can endure the pressure from the near and dear ones to either remain quiet, or leave Manipur, for the fear of being harmed. Erendro Leichombam is one such name from the Meitei community.
An alumni of Harvard University, Erendro had returned home around 2016 and co-formed a political party, People's Resurgence and Justice Alliance, with noted Manipuri anti-AFSPA activist Irom Sharmila. They contested assembly elections in 2017, unsuccessfully. Sharmila, thereafter, left Manipur and Erendro continued in Imphal as a political activist. In 2018, he was charged under the National Security Act (NSA) for commenting on a video clip where some men from Bihar were seen threatening to eliminate Manipuris.
State police asked him to remove the video with the comments from Facebook which he refused; called it a hate video and said that 'while the state cyber crime branch had arrested a person in no time for threatening to kill the son of the chief minister N. Biren Singh, those threatening to kill Manipuris were not being arrested by the police.'
Alongside Erendro, an Imphal-based young journalist Wangkhem Kishorechandra was also arrested under the NSA. That was Kishore's third arrest in the Biren era. All those arrests were triggered by his scathing criticism of the chief minister, PM Modi and the BJP-RSS. He continues to reside in Imphal.
Just recently, Erendro was granted political asylum by the United States, and has since left the country. This June 19, he wrote a long post on Facebook about his self exile.
'I did not choose exile. It arrived like a severance – swift, political, intimate…I was an outspoken political activist. I spoke my mind, loudly and clearly – and for that, I was imprisoned. More than once, Eventually, I was forced to leave not because I was wrong, but because I would not stop. I left Manipur in 2022," Erendro said.
"In 2025, I was granted political asylum by the United States government. America has gracefully given me political asylum. It was a moment of profound relief – and sorrow. Relief, because I was safe. Sorrow because exile is never a celebration. It is a confirmation that something deeply unjust has taken root in one's homeland,' Erendro added in the post.
Yet another civil rights activist from Imphal, Binalakshmi Nepram, has also been in the United States in political asylum after facing threats to her life for supporting a family whose son was allegedly gunned down by Biren Singh's son in broad daylight in Imphal in 2017.
'While Bina has not come home, as per a Supreme Court order, her parents' house in Sagolband area of Imphal is still being guarded by a team of the Central Reserve Police Force,' related Laba.
Even though threats to Bina took place during the first term of Biren Singh as the BJP chief minister, Laba said it was 'good and Manipur was poised to return to normalcy'.
But what happened in the second term? 'If you ask me, Singh has no experience in handling crisis of such magnitude, and therefore, began using brute force as a means to silence his critics, both in politics, civil society and media.'
