The buffer zones between the areas dominated by the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities in Manipur may need to continue where the “wounds of violence remain deep”, the state’s Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen told The Hindu on Thursday.
When asked whether the buffer zones should remain in place or be removed, Kipgen told the newspaper: “My response would be both yes and no. Buffer zones may need to continue in areas where the wounds of violence remain deep. Healing takes time, and safety must be the first priority.”
While the Meiteis dominate the valley region, the Kukis are in the majority in the state’s hill districts.
On February 4, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yumnam Khemchand Singh took oath as the Manipur chief minister, ending the President’s Rule that had been in place for nearly a year.
Kipgen, who belongs to the Kuki community, and Naga People’s Front MLA Losii Dikho, from the Naga community, were sworn in as deputy chief ministers.
Kipgen, who is the state’s first deputy chief minister from the Kuki-Zo community, had taken oath virtually from the Manipur Bhavan in New Delhi. This came after Kuki groups objected to her joining the government led by Khemchand Singh, a Meitei leader.
After Kipgen took oath, Kuki groups reiterated their demand that MLAs from the community “cannot and should not” participate in the formation of the government, adding that the elected administration would neither restore normalcy nor heal social divisions.
The Kuki-Zo Council, an organisation of Kuki tribes, had said that the community had been “forcibly and physically separated by the Meiteis” and has been demanding a separate administration from the “Meitei government” in the form of a Union Territory with a legislature.
Kipgen told The Hindu that “there has been a misunderstanding and concern” relating to her becoming the deputy chief minister.
“The protests reflect pain, fear, and political anxieties born out of prolonged suffering, and I respect those emotions,” she said. “Sometimes leadership requires stepping into difficult spaces rather than remaining outside them.”
Manipur had been under President’s Rule since February 2025, when BJP leader N Biren Singh resigned as the chief minister.
At least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced since ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in May 2023. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.
Biren Singh had stepped down amid allegations from Kuki-Zomi-Hmar groups that his response to the violence had been partisan and that he had stoked majoritarianism.
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