Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh’s sudden visit to New Delhi, reportedly following a call from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has added a new political dimension to the intensifying confrontation in Manipur over the proposed Census and the demand for an update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Khemchand, who is in the national capital amid mounting pressure from civil society organisations, was seen meeting Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju today. A photograph of the meeting has since surfaced, although neither side has publicly disclosed the details of their discussions.
The Chief Minister’s Delhi visit assumes significance as protests against the Census have intensified across Manipur. The Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation (JFD) and several civil society organisations have maintained that the Census should not be conducted until the NRC is updated. Women’s groups have also stepped up protests, while attempts to conduct Census-related training and preparatory activities have faced resistance.
The timing of Khemchand’s visit is particularly significant as the state government appears caught between pressure from the Centre to proceed with the Census and growing demands within Manipur for an NRC exercise first. The cancellation of a three-day training programme for Census enumerators and supervisors at GM Hall in Imphal on Wednesday, following warnings from civil society groups, has further exposed the difficulty of implementing the exercise on the ground.
Khemchand’s reported interaction with Rijiju also comes at a time when the Chief Minister is expected to face the issue in the state Assembly, with the forthcoming session likely to witness renewed debate over the NRC demand and the government’s position on the Census.
The political stakes have been further raised by the presence of former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh in Delhi. Biren left Imphal on August 24 following a reported call from the BJP central leadership. With both the incumbent and former Chief Ministers in the national capital within days of each other, speculation has intensified over whether the BJP leadership is assessing the political and administrative situation in Manipur at a broader level.
For Khemchand, the Delhi visit comes at a critical juncture. His government has been attempting to project a return towards normalcy, including the restoration of passenger transport along NH-2, while simultaneously confronting increasingly assertive demands from civil society over the NRC and Census.
Any decision emerging from the Delhi consultations could therefore have consequences well beyond the Census exercise. It could determine how the Khemchand government navigates the growing disconnect between the Centre’s administrative timetable and a section of Manipur’s civil society demanding demographic verification before any fresh population enumeration.
For now, there is no official confirmation that the Centre has agreed to an NRC update before the Census or decided to defer the Census in Manipur. But Khemchand’s Delhi visit, his meeting with Rijiju and the reported expected interaction with Amit Shah have placed the NRC-Census dispute firmly at the centre of the state’s political conversation.
