Delhi’s Deafening Silence: Complicity or Cowardice in Manipur’s Ethnic Carnage?

As 2026 dawns under President’s Rule, New Delhi’s selective enforcement of law in Manipur—marked by indulgence toward Meitei radical groups with documented foreign links—raises a disturbing question: is the Indian state paralysed by incompetence, or deliberately appeasing forces that imperil its own sovereignty?

Nearly three years after violence erupted in Manipur in May 2023, the crisis can no longer be dismissed as a “communal clash.” What has unfolded is a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Kuki-Zo tribal minority: more than 260 people killed, over 60,000 displaced, upwards of 350 churches destroyed, and nearly 7,000 homes reduced to ash. Entire hill districts have been emptied, segregated by armed buffer zones, while survivors languish in relief camps through a third winter.

Yet, while Kuki-Zo village volunteers—largely defensive and locally organised—have faced aggressive investigation by central agencies, Meitei radical groups implicated in mass arson, arms looting, and targeted killings appear to enjoy extraordinary impunity. This asymmetry is not merely a humanitarian failure; it is a national-security scandal.

State-Sponsored Impunity: From Biren Singh to Armed Radicalism

Former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh’s resignation in February 2025, amid Truth Lab forensic tests confirmed his voices, was projected as a course correction. It was not. Allegations linking Singh to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)—a banned Meitei militant organisation with a long history of Chinese training in Yunnan since the 1970s—remain conspicuously uninvestigated

This silence persists despite the National Investigation Agency’s own 2024 chargesheets describing a “China-Myanmar module,” wherein NSCN-IM operatives facilitated coordination among PLA, KYKL, and allied groups to exploit Manipur’s ethnic fault lines. Leaked audio recordings allegedly implicating Singh—never forensically discredited, merely stalled—remain buried under layers of bureaucratic inertia. Such paralysis, under direct central oversight, raises unavoidable questions about political shielding.

Even more troubling is the case of Arambai Tenggol, a Meitei radical militia that flourished openly under Singh’s tenure. In 2023 alone, police armories across Manipur were looted of more than 6,000 sophisticated weapons and over 600,000 rounds of ammunition—one of the gravest internal security breaches in independent India’s history. Amnesty International has documented at least 32 incidents since May 2023 in which Arambai Tenggol cadres led or coordinated attacks on Kuki-Zo villages.

Also Read: The Kuki-Zo ultimatum: A persecuted people's demand for survival through separate administration

Despite token “surrenders” under President’s Rule—246 weapons in February 2025 and 61 more thereafter—the overwhelming majority of looted arms remain unaccounted for. No ballistic audits. No mass arrests. No recovery of protective gear or command infrastructure. Instead, Arambai Tenggol continues to operate openly, extorting civilians and enforcing ethnic dominance, even as Kuki-Zo civilians face raids, arrests, and intimidation

Ignored Arrests, Barred Probes, and Strategic Diversions

The pattern of selective enforcement is unmistakable. On 31 August 2025, Manipur Police arrested four individuals described as “Keishal Village Volunteers”—a euphemism masking an emerging Meitei militant cell—in possession of 17 sophisticated firearms, explosives, and warlike stores. Officials hailed it as a “major breakthrough” against illegal arms proliferation. Yet no NIA follow-up materialised.

Independent sources indicate the weapons were traceable to looted state stockpiles and politically protected supply chains. Central agencies, reportedly constrained by directives from the Raj Bhavan and Union authorities, declined to pursue the case further.

A more lethal episode followed on 19 September 2025, when an Assam Rifles convoy was ambushed in Nambol, killing Nb Sub Shyam Gurung and Rfn Ranjit Singh Kashyap and injuring five others. Initial denials collapsed within weeks as security forces arrested at least 15 PLA cadres by October, several linked directly to the attack. A PLA propaganda video released in December 2025 openly claimed further operations.

Yet again, investigative momentum stalled. Instead of dismantling Meitei militant networks, enforcement pivoted toward mass arrests of Kuki-Zo civilians and volunteers—many with no militant affiliation—creating a diversion that insulated the actual perpetrators.

Chinese Shadows and Delhi’s Calculated Blindness

India’s intelligence establishment has long acknowledged sustained Chinese involvement in Northeast insurgencies—funding, arms, drones, and training routed through Myanmar to destabilise border regions and undermine India’s Act East policy. The NIA’s own transnational conspiracy chargesheets corroborate this reality.

Why, then, does enforcement disproportionately target Kuki-Zo groups—many operating under formal Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreements—while Meitei outfits with demonstrable foreign linkages operate with near immunity?

The answer increasingly appears political. New Delhi seems unwilling to confront radical elements within the Meitei majority, fearing electoral backlash and destabilisation in a BJP-ruled core state. This is not mere negligence; it is strategic appeasement—with catastrophic consequences.

President’s Rule, imposed in February 2025, was meant to restore neutrality. While border fencing along Myanmar has progressed and additional CRPF units deployed, internal accountability remains absent. Over 1,200 looted weapons have been recovered since 2024—an achievement rendered hollow by the thousands still circulating freely.

Meanwhile, Kuki-Zo demands for a separate administrative arrangement—grounded in constitutional precedent and international indigenous-rights norms—are dismissed without dialogue, even as their ancestral territories remain militarised and depopulated.

A Test of India’s Republic

Manipur today is not a peripheral crisis. It is a stress test for India’s constitutional order. A state that arrests the innocent while shielding the guilty, that criminalises victims while indulging armed extremists, forfeits moral authority and invites external manipulation.

Delhi must act decisively: empower the NIA to pursue Meitei radical networks without political interference; fully disarm Arambai Tenggol; investigate allegations against former Chief Minister Biren Singh; and restore equal protection of the law. Anything less amounts to complicity.

Inaction serves only Beijing and radical militias. It fractures India’s eastern frontier and corrodes faith in the Republic itself. As 2026 unfolds, the choice before New Delhi is stark: confront anti-India forces without fear or favour—or allow Manipur’s tragedy to metastasise into a permanent national-security wound.

The Kuki-Zo can no longer be made to suffer in silence. India’s integrity—and conscience—hangs in the balance.