Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) launched a sharp political attack against the Centre on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, through an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government of deploying overwhelming force to protect political power in New Delhi while leaving Manipur to burn under relentless ethnic violence.

The Core Charge: Misplaced Priorities

The Saamana editorial drew a pointed contrast between the government's response to anti-government protests in the national capital and its handling of Manipur's ongoing ethnic crisis. According to the editorial, the Centre mobilised sweeping security infrastructure — barricades, heavy personnel, and militarised street deployments — to contain political demonstrations in Delhi, while armed groups in Manipur's hilly and forested terrain continue to clash with assault weapons largely unchecked.

The Thackeray camp's editorial framed this as an indictment of the BJP's 'double-engine government' doctrine, noting that despite the party controlling both the Centre and the Manipur state government, peace in the northeastern state remains elusive. 'Let Manipur burn, but Delhi must be saved, and the government must survive,' the editorial charged, attributing this as the operative directive of the current leadership.

Scale of Violence in Manipur

The editorial cited grim figures to underscore the human cost of the crisis. Over the past three years, ethnic clashes between the Meitei, Kuki, and Naga communities — rooted in a dispute over Scheduled Tribe (ST) status — have claimed more than 350 lives. The violence has accelerated: in the last six months alone, 60 people have been killed, with at least 23 fatal attacks recorded over a recent 20-day period.

The editorial highlighted a particularly harrowing recent incident in the Sunulok region, where an armed group allegedly opened indiscriminate fire on 14 Meitei civilians collecting firewood in a forest, killing three of them on the spot. In a stark expression of public fury, enraged residents reportedly placed the body of a slain youth directly outside Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh's residence in Imphal.

Condition of Displaced Residents

'Thousands of displaced Manipuris continue to languish in overcrowded, substandard government relief camps, trapped in constant fear for their lives. Heavy security forces are deployed, yet armed groups clash at will with assault weapons. Sending security contingents is treated as the end of the government's duty, while grassroots trust-building remains entirely missing,' the Saamana editorial stated.

The editorial argued that the deployment of security forces has been treated as a box-ticking exercise rather than a genuine strategy for restoring normalcy, with no visible effort toward community reconciliation or long-term administrative trust-building.

Uddhav Thackeray Camp's Rhetorical Challenge

Concluding its editorial, Shiv Sena (UBT) posed a direct challenge to the Centre: 'Is Manipur not a part of India just like Delhi? While the government deploys massive strength in Delhi, why is the same force not applied to Manipur? Manipur is burning over and over again. Who will stop this inferno?'

The editorial also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Manipur did not translate into any lasting operational change on the ground, according to the party. This critique arrives as Shiv Sena (UBT) sharpens its opposition narrative ahead of state-level political contests, making Manipur a referendum on the BJP's governance competence. With no resolution in sight, the question of how the Centre plans to restore durable peace in the state remains unanswered.