Manipur deserves to be under President’s rule

According to Article 356, Union government can impose President's Rule if there’s a breakdown of law and order in the State

Hyderabad: According to Article 356 of the Constitution of India, if there is a situation in which a State government is unable to function as per Constitutional provisions, in other words, a failure of constitutional machinery and subsequent breakdown of law and order, the union Government can suspend the State government and take direct control of the State machinery, or in other words, impose President’s Rule.

Ever since the first time it was used in June 1951 in Punjab, there have been over 130 instances of President’s Rule being imposed in different States and at least 10 of these were due to the breakdown of law and order, some on much lesser scale than the current violence in Manipur. So, why hasn’t the Narendra Modi government moved in that direction and imposed President’s Rule in Manipur is the question making the rounds now. The BJP, which was quick to demand President’s Rule in West Bengal following the death of 12 persons following violent panchayat elections there barely two weeks ago, is maintaining silence on the same when it comes to Manipur.

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This is even as the situation in the North Eastern State has turned out to be much more violent than any other recent internal strife in the country, with 142 persons killed and 17 missing as of July 4 in the ethnic violence that has shocked the country. Apart from this, several hundreds were injured, several thousands of people were displaced, central forces were deployed and still, violence is continuing.

Interestingly, even when there are multiple demands for the imposition of President’s Rule following the clashes, Home Minister Amit Shah told an all-party delegation in late June that President’s Rule was “not an option” and that the situation was “returning to normal”. The happenings in Manipur, however, belie his statement, with the official machinery still fumbling in the dark on the exact number of weapons and ammunition that were looted from police stations and armouries. All that they say is that about 4,000 weapons were stolen since the violence between the Meitei and Kuki communities began on May 3. These included deadly assault rifles such as INSAS and AK-47s, of which, according to Shah, only about 1,800 were recovered so far. The ammunition rounds that were stolen were in lakhs, with no official figure on whether any of those were recovered.

All this point out to the fact that the situation in Manipur is snowballing, or already has snowballed, almost into a civil war, with multiple opposition parties including the Congress, Shiv Sena, BJP legislators from the Kuki community and several in the Manipur government themselves, among others, repeatedly calling for President’s Rule in the State. Still, the Centre remains mum on any concrete action to rein the law and order situation back into control. This is when situations that weren’t as serious were earlier used by multiple Central governments, including BJP-led ones, to invoke Article 356 and impose President’s Rule in different States. Chhattisgarh and Telangana are the only States where the President’s rule has never been imposed so far.