BJP National vice-president Ram Madhav, responding to Congress Lok Sabha MP Dr Angomcha Bimol Akoijam’s criticism of the Centre’s handling of the Manipur crisis, said restoring peace in the state requires dialogue among the conflicting communities and collective responsibility rather than attributing the crisis to a single political party.
Speaking at the ‘Manipur Way Ahead’ session of The Conclave 2026 in New Delhi, Madhav said the conflict was an internal issue and not a war against an external enemy.
“This is not a fight against an external enemy; it is an issue happening within our own community and within our own state,” he said, stressing that dialogue and peace were the only way forward.
Madhav said efforts should focus on bringing different sections of Manipur together and building on recent developments in the peace process. Referring to the tripartite dialogue held in Guwahati, he said the developments from the talks should be carried forward.
On Bimol’s demand that the government take responsibility for preventing further violence, Madhav said he supported such responsibility, while maintaining that the Centre was making efforts to address the situation.
“If you say that the government should take responsibility to ensure that violence does not happen again, I will support that,” he said.
Madhav acknowledged that incidents of violence were still being reported in parts of Manipur but said the situation had improved compared with the previous year. He also rejected the argument that continued violence indicated a lack of intent on the part of the government to resolve the crisis.
“No government wants such violent incidents to continue,” he said.
Responding to the question of responsibility, Madhav said no single political party could be held responsible for restoring peace and that all stakeholders had to share the responsibility.
He also stressed the need to prevent armed groups from moving freely with weapons, saying groups carrying arms should remain inside designated camps. At the same time, he cautioned that security operations must ensure that innocent civilians were not harmed.
Madhav said the objective should be to create conditions in which people from different communities could live without fear and expressed confidence that Manipur would eventually return to normalcy.
His remarks came during the same discussion in which Bimol questioned the Centre’s handling of the prolonged crisis and asked who was preventing the Government of India from taking effective steps to stop the violence.
