The second largest ally of the BJP-led Manipur government, the National People’s Party (NPP), Sunday withdrew support to it citing its failure to “restore normalcy” in the state and expressing “deep concern”. NPP leader and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma speaks to The Indian Express on the reasons behind withdrawing support to the N Biren Singh government and the way forward. Excerpts:

* Why has the NPP accused the BJP government of failure in Manipur?

The Manipur issue is a complicated issue and, because of historical reasons, things there have always been complicated. Obviously, things that happened in the past have complicated it further. In this violence and law and order situation lasting about a year and a half, multiple factors have led to the current situation. Certain actions and certain non-actions have aggravated it… of course, you cannot have the correct solution at that point. It’s very easy to look back and say, ‘You should have done this’. Some efforts were there, but somehow things kept slipping.

Now we have reached a point where things are really out of control. We continue to see law and order situations breaking out, people are dying and it’s very sad to see people suffer. It’s not about blaming anybody in particular, but you could have done different things like a change of guard, (brought in) an individual or system which has people’s confidence. People need to have confidence in the system and the government. Whatever peace talks or other efforts have been made, somehow people are not confident or comfortable.

(We can earn people’s) confidence back with a lot of work, but things look like they are going the other way… It’s not possible for us to blame anybody, but things did not fall into place because decisions were not taken at the right time and the situation became further worse. So our party had to take a stand and we took this decision.

* Do you think the Centre has intervened effectively or made genuine efforts to control the situation?

Both the state and Central governments have made efforts. The question is how effective were those. The effectiveness could not be seen or felt because the primary factor is that it is about the confidence and trust of people… that people should feel that somebody or some system is going to work. We have been stressing that the (Central) government should intervene at the level where there has to be a leadership change, there has to be PR put in. We have had several discussions internally, not (done it) publicly to avoid complications. But we have spelled it out internally.

But things did not (turn out in a way) that the government felt it could move forward and resolve the situation. It was the question of perspective – we had our views, the Centre had its views, the Manipur government had its. There were steps, but not effective. Sadly, they were not effective because of the trust deficit in the system.

* Given this step by you, a key BJP ally in the Northeast, do you hope the top leadership of the BJP will act?

It’s not to pressure anyone to do anything. At the end of the day, it’s really about one’s conscience… we have been fine supporting any solution to resolve the situation. It’s not about proving who is right or wrong. It’s about bringing peace in Manipur. That’s what we want. We wanted to ensure all possible coordination, see that communication takes place, (there is dialogue with) individual stakeholders, to move towards a solution in the days to come. But that was not what was happening.

We have been expressing this internally for a very long time. In spite of us mentioning it many times, we did not see the kind of steps that we were hoping to see. I stressed one point, one point only: for any steps to be successful and effective, the people must have confidence that whatever we are doing is sincere and genuine. And without a change of guard, that message will not go out. So whatever you do, you will not be able to achieve that. I am not targeting anybody, I am just talking about the situation, which requires (giving) confidence to the people. That’s the first step you need to go forward, and that’s what we have been saying.

Of course, we are NDA partners in other parts of the Northeast, in Arunachal, Nagaland and Meghalaya. But we are clear that, under the current leadership in Manipur, things have deteriorated to the extent that it is very difficult to go back. If the Central government does not act now – Manipur is already burning – things could take a very, very bad shape, things could get very disturbing in Manipur. I do hope some concrete steps are taken, otherwise it’s going to be very, very complicated.

* Did you raise this during your last meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi?

As Chief Minister, with the PM, I discuss state and governance issues. But to the leadership of the BJP, yes… I have had multiple discussions with the (Union) Home Minister (Amit Shah), I have had discussions with the BJP president (J P Nadda) and other senior leaders of the BJP. I told them multiple times that the situation is getting more and more complicated, and we need to move forward. We have been communicating. The Home Minister is the right person to take up this issue. We have communicated to them that the situation is very serious.

* What do you think is the way forward in Manipur? What could be the immediate steps?

I don’t have a solution and I don’t know how we can go forward now. But given the sense of the general public there, if there is a call for peace talks, I do not think the current set of people would come forward. They will say as long as he (Chief Minister N Biren Singh) is there, we will not have any talks. We need to build confidence. How do you do it? I am leaving it to the leadership. If they want to build that confidence with the current regime, well they can try. But I do not see a chance. If the government of India wants to resolve this, (make the) people feel that it is genuinely keen, the environment has to be that people feel comfortable and trust that our talks will yield concrete measures.

* Recently, Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma repeatedly attacked the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM), accusing it of causing floods in Guwahati, saying the architecture of the university’s main gate, which has three domes, is a sign of ‘jihad’, and saying no person from the institute would be hired in Assam.

There are two aspects to this. The institute itself has been doing exceptionally well. They are very professional and performing well professionally. They are very committed to see that students do well, they provide the best infrastructure and academics. With regard to the permission to set up the university, all the required formalities have been completed. So it’s not correct to be critical of the university as such.

Having said that, there is certainly the issue of water logging, after heavy rains. The construction in the university area, or other nearby areas, in Guwahati and surrounding areas etc… it’s a different chapter. So it’s not correct to connect the two (the university and the floods). We need not connect the two. There’s an environmental factor, let’s work on it. Let’s figure out how we can resolve it.

I do not think blaming any particular individual would solve the problem. Definitely, we have understood the concerns of the Honorable Chief Minister (Sarma). It’s a big concern. We would like to see that we contribute to resolving the flood issue that Guwahati is facing.

We have also decided to have joint inspections and joint committees to look into these areas so that steps are taken from all sides – be it from the USTM side, other sides of activities around the area, around Guwahati – to see that the situation does not occur in the future.