One of the greatest mysteries in recent memory has been cracked: what was Narendra Modi doing when Manipur was burning?

“The Prime Minister had called me at 4 in the night and also woken me up at 6.30 the following day,” Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The Union home minister was seeking to address criticism that Modi, who took over 75 days to speak publicly on Manipur, has not been paying attention to the conflict in the northeastern state.

Shah ruled out removing Biren Singh as Manipur chief minister on the premise that he has cooperated with every decision of the Centre after the state plunged into turmoil on May 3.

Intervening in the debate on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, he urged the Kukis and Meiteis to sit with the Centre to find a way to lasting peace in the state.

After presenting a detailed statement on the situation in Manipur, Shah sought the support of the House in passing a resolution appealing for peace in the state.

There was general consensus on this in the Lok Sabha though leader of the Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the Prime Minister should also be present in the House when the resolution is being adopted.

More than half of the lengthy intervention made by Shah towards the fag end of the second day of the debate on the motion was spent on detailing the work of the Modi government and berating previous non-BJP governments, particularly those run by the Congress. But he spent nearly 30 minutes on Manipur and urged everyone to avoid doing politics on the situation.

On the specific demand for Singh’s removal and placing Manipur under President’s rule, Shah said this was not done as the state government had cooperated with every decision taken by the Centre, including the transfer of personnel from the chief secretary downwards.

Myanmar coup

As for the genesis of the situation, he traced it back to the military coup in Myanmar — with which Manipur shares a 1,623km-long border — in 2021. The military rulers’ crackdown on the Kuki-dominated pro-democratic group saw an exodus into Manipur through the open borders in subsequent months, triggering apprehensions of a demographic change, he said.

This was further aggravated by the Manipur High Court order recommending the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes list, leading to concerns among the Kukis of job opportunities shrinking.

While conceding that tensions continued to prevail in the state three months later, Shah — who agreed with the Opposition’s description of the situation as “hinsa ka taandav (pirouette of violence)” — insisted that the incidence of violence has been on the downward trajectory after 68 people were killed on May 3, 4 and 5. From 107 deaths in May, it has come down to 30 in June, 15 in July and four till now this month.

As for measures to address the situation, the home minister said a buffer zone had been created between the hill and the valley which was being patrolled by central forces, and a central command had been created to coordinate between the various security forces deployed in the state and work on fencing the border had begun.