New Delhi, March 7 -- On February 22, a room on the third floor of Manipur Bhavan in New Delhi witnessed a meeting that would have been routine in any other state. But for Manipur, it was anything but routine.

It had been two weeks after the chief minister and two deputy chief ministers took charge of Manipur. But the three met for the first time, in person, under one roof, after taking over, in the national capital that day -- an event made impossible in state capital Imphal by the sharp ethnic divisions that continue to roil Manipur.

The meeting -- where chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh, a Meitei, and his two deputies, Losii Dikho, a Naga, and Nemcha Kipgen, a Kuki-Zo discussed the way forward for the strife-torn state -- is only...