Modi’s Churachandpur visit exposes the cracks in Manipur's Kuki-Zo alliance

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Churachandpur on 13 September, 2025, braving torrential rains to travel battered roads and address a public gathering, it should have been a moment of catharsis for a state reeling from more than two years of relentless ethnic violence.

- PROSENJIT NATH

Instead, his visit tore open the fragile bandages holding Manipur’s Kuki-Zo alliance together. What was supposed to be a show of solidarity devolved into a public unraveling. Social media feeds erupted with bitterness and backroom secrets, tweets and Facebook posts revealing militant coercion, internal rivalries, and sub-tribal ego clashes that had been simmering behind the veneer of unity.

The moment the PM set foot in Churachandpur, ten Kuki-Zo MLAs presented him with a joint memorandum demanding a separate administration. It was symbolic: Their first direct encounter with the prime minister since violence broke out on 3 May, 2023. Yet the symbolism masked fatigue. For 28 long months, these leaders had huddled in Delhi’s safehouses, their every move monitored by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and militant groups like the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and United People’s Front (UPF). Initially united by a common enemy, the Meitei-majoritarian state government, they were now fractured by ambition and mistrust.