Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s resignation was belated and akin to “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted”, the Congress said on Sunday.

Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge said that it was painful to say that “for 21 months, the Bharatiya Janata Party ignited a fire in Manipur and left the people, across communities” to fend for themselves.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the real culprit of this disdain and apathy,” Kharge said on social media. “He has forgotten that Manipur is a part of India. It is high time he rejigs his memory and locate the state of Manipur on the map of India!”

On Sunday evening, Biren Singh resigned as the chief minister amid allegations from Kuki-Zomi-Hmar groups that his response to the ethnic violence in Manipur was partisan, and that he stoked majoritarianism.

The violence between the Meitei and Kuki-Zomi-Hmar communities since May 2023 has left at least 258 persons dead and displaced more than 59,000.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blamed Singh for instigating violence in the state and said that the chief minister had been forced to resign over “mounting public pressure, the Supreme Court investigation and the no-confidence motion by the Congress”.

The leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said that restoring peace in Manipur must be the priority and asked the prime minister to “explain his plan to bring back normalcy”.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that his party was set to move a no-confidence motion against Singh in the Manipur Assembly on Monday. Ramesh reiterated the Opposition’s demand that the prime minister must visit the conflict-hit state.

“The chief minister’s resignation was belated,” Ramesh said on social media. “The people of Manipur now await a visit by our Frequent Flier Prime Minister who is off to France and the USA now – and who has found neither the time nor the inclination to go to Manipur these past twenty months.”

Since the beginning of the violence 21 months ago, Kuki-Zomi-Hmar groups have been demanding the removal of Singh for his alleged partisan approach to the conflict and majoritarian policies.

On February 3, the Supreme Court ordered the Central Forensic Science Laboratory to submit in a sealed cover a report on audio clips allegedly linking Singh to the ethnic violence in the state

The order came on a petition by the Kuki Organization for Human Rights Trust. The organisation has sought an independent investigation into the audio recordings claiming that the tapes feature the chief minister taking credit for “how and why the conflict started”.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioner, told the court that the tapes had been examined by independent forensic laboratory Truth Labs. The laboratory had confirmed with 93% certainty that the voice heard in the recordings was that of the chief minister, Bhushan said.

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