India, Oct. 21 -- In any part of the world, three years would appear to be a reasonable time frame for a local government to tamp down on internal violence. Not in Manipur. Violence that began in the summer of 2023, killed at least 320 people and displaced another 60,000, only continues to spiral. It has now engulfed every community in the state, virtually balkanised the province into communal enclaves separated by tense proto-borders, and underlined that the new state government is still struggling to get a handle on law and order. In a terrifying turn, the original trigger for the violence - a clash between the Meiteis and Kukis - appears to have resurfaced, with the killing of three people collecting firewood at a contentious district border. The act of placing the bodies of two victims outside the CM's residence underscores the trust deficit between the ordinary citizen and the administration. Since the first embers of violence in 2023, Manipur has tried both elected government and direct governor's rule. When the new administration took charge with carefully balanced ethnic representation, there was hope that this would pave the way for a fresh start for the bruised state. Instead, the government and security establishment were able to do little as the Naga-Kuki clashes escalated and held the state hostage, followed by widening conflict between communities - including groups previously insulated from the disturbance. It is clear now that mere piecemeal solutions or patchwork government initiatives won't bridge the deep chasm between communities or help a state that's turned into a virtual battleground, awash with sophisticated weapons that the forces and administration have failed to retrieve. The new government has to quickly change course and establish the supremacy of law and order if it wants to have any hope of stanching the bloodshed. For a liberal democracy, a state in perpetual turmoil is a jarring enough eventuality. But Manipur assumes greater significance due to its strategic and geographical location, and the painstaking work done over the decades to assimilate the region into the Union. Those gains cannot be frittered away by politicians interested in vote bases, unwilling to either have an honest reckoning with faultlines or sacrifice short-term political gains for long-term national goals. It is time for the central government to give special, sustained and significant attention to Manipur. Ending the conflict must be a national priority....