Mob attacks Union minister RK Ranjan Singh's Manipur home, sets it on fire

A mob of around 50 people burnt down the house of Union minister of state for external affairs, RK Ranjan Singh, on Thursday night in Manipur’s capital Imphal, prompting the politician to speak out against his own party’s government and putting the spotlight on the state government’s struggle to put on a lid on the sweeping ethnic violence that has gripped the northeastern state.

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The mob damaged Singh’s home at around 10pm on Thursday in the Konga Nandeibam Leikai area of Imphal East district, police officers said. Firefighters and security forces rushed to the scene and doused the flames, with Singh away in Kerala at the time, officials added.

This was the second time in a month that the house was attacked. On May 23, when a similar mob stormed the minister’s residence, security personnel managed to disperse them by firing shots in the air.

Video footage from his home on Friday showed that this time, large sections of his home and multiple vehicles were charred.

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Singh, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament (MP) from Inner Manipur said he never expected it from fellow citizens.

“This is the second time... It seems to be an attempt on my life and could happen a third time as well. There is a total failure of law and order in Manipur. The existing [state] government hasn’t been able to maintain peace despite the central government sending a lot of protection,” Ranjan said.

He said he has been trying to bring peace to the state since the violence first erupted on May 3. “The government has set up a peace committee, the process is on. Civil society leaders are sitting together. That (house) is (from) my own hard-earned money…this is a mob,” he added.

The police did not offer a statement on Friday.

Tensions continued to simmer in the state, three days after the sharpest escalation of violence saw nine people gunned down and another 10 injured in a village on the border of Imphal East and Kangpokpi districts.

A warehouse belonging to a retired administrative service officer was torched near the Imphal Palace grounds on Friday afternoon by a mob. Security personnel resorted to firing tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. On Thursday, a mob had burnt down two houses in Imphal as clashes had broken out between protesters and security personnel.

Clashes between the majority Meitei community and the tribal Kuki community first erupted on May 3 and have since claimed 115 lives. Tuesday night’s incident marked the highest number of casualties in a single day since violence first broke out six weeks ago, underlining the challenge of restoring peace in a state where ethnic divisions run deep. At least 300 people have been injured and nearly 40,000 displaced.

On Thursday, chief minister N Biren Singh had said that search and combing operations were on, and that stringent action will be taken against those trying to disturb law-and-order.

“Search and combing operations have been conducted at different places including Kurangpat and Yaingangpokpi by a team consisting of paramilitary forces and Manipur Police. Search operations had been conducted in 41 villages of hill areas and 39 villages in adjoining valley areas. The government will not compromise even an inch of land to any force trying to disturb the state’s unity and integrity,” he had said.

Clashes first broke out on May 3 in Churachandpur town after Kuki groups called for protests against a court-proposed tweak to the state’s reservation matrix, granting scheduled tribe (ST) status to the majority Meitei community. Violence quickly engulfed the state where ethnic fault lines run deep, displacing tens of thousands of people who fled burning homes and neighbourhoods into jungles, often across state borders. The authorities clamped a curfew and suspended internet, pumping in additional security forces to force a break in the spiraling clashes. Internet is still not fully back in the state.

The renewed violence was yet another reminder that anger and distrust continued to drive wedges between various communities in the state, where the law-and-order situation remained in flux. The government, therefore, must try to get a handle on the law-and-order situation, ensure that security forces calm tensions while initiating confidence-building measures to bridge the trust deficit between groups.

On Wednesday, the official residence of Nemcha Kipgen, a state cabinet minister, was burned down by unidentified men. Kipgen, the BJP lawmaker from Kangpokpi, is the industry minister and the only woman in the Manipur cabinet. She is also among the 10 Kuki lawmakers seeking a separate administration for Kuki-Zomi-Chin-Hmar communities of the state, and was not present in the house.

A government order issued on Friday said that nine policemen were suspended for dereliction of duty for failing to protect Kipgen’s home, and 17 others arrested in Imphal for their alleged involvement in cases of arson.