Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday urged representatives of 18 political parties to “have faith in him” as the as the Centre is monitoring and taking steps to restore normalcy in Manipur, where ethnic violence since May 3 has claimed nearly 115 lives.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been “constantly monitoring the situation since day one”, Shah told an all-party meeting where leaders from some parties including the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) questioned the PM’s silence on the matter.
Apart from putting their disapproval of the state government’s response to the clashes between the Kuki and Meitei groups in the state on record, some opposition parties also sought chief minister N Biren Singh’s resignation. Several opposition parties also demanded that an all party delegation should be sent to Manipur.
According to leaders who attended the meeting, the home minister cited his long experience in dealing with crises as he sought to allay their fears about the violence.
Shah told leaders all efforts are underway to restore peace in the state where at least 115 lives have been lost, over 300 injured and nearly 40,000 displaced so far, a leader said seeking anonymity.
{{/usCountry}}Shah told leaders all efforts are underway to restore peace in the state where at least 115 lives have been lost, over 300 injured and nearly 40,000 displaced so far, a leader said seeking anonymity.
{{/usCountry}}“He acknowledged the concerns and the suggestions made by the leaders and assured them that the government would consider their recommendations with an open mind,” the leader cited above said after the over three-hour-long meeting in the national capital.
“The home minister said the PM has been guiding us with full sensitivity to find a solution to this problem and the government is committed to solving the problem by taking everyone along. The home minister said the priority of the Modi government is that no more lives should be lost due to violence in the state,” said a home ministry official.
The home minister said 36,000 security personnel, including 40 IPS officers, have been deployed in Manipur, while 20 medical teams were also despatched, according to the official.
“Fencing work of 10 km of Myanmar-Manipur border has been completed, tendering work for 80 km of border fencing has been completed and survey of remaining border is underway,” the official said, adding that the home minister has sought the cooperation of all parties to help defuse the situation and restore peace.
Opposition parties have mounted pressure on the BJP government at the Centre and in the state to resolve a crisis that erupted after a Tribal Solidarity March in the hill districts on May 3 to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Soon after Saturday’s meeting, the Congress said that former Manipur CM Okram Ibobi Singh, who represented the party at the meeting, was not given sufficient time to voice his concerns.
“When I started giving my suggestions, I think he (home minister) did not want to listen. I also mentioned that this was not the time to politicise the issue as normalcy needs to be brought in the state. I asked him to give me at least five minutes to speak on the issue but he asked me to meet him separately,” Ibobi told mediapersons.
Hours later, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said it is a matter of “insult” that the only leader from Manipur at the all-party meeting was not allowed to put forth his views on the situation. “The all-party meeting organised by the Home Minister today was just an eye-wash and a formality,” Ramesh tweeted.
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD), that is counted as a friendly party of the BJP, suggested that the case pertaining to the ST status for Meities be heard in the Supreme Court.
“Our party’s stand is that the case should be transferred from the division bench of the Manipur High Court to the Supreme Court, since it will assuage concerns and people have faith in the apex court as its decisions tend to be acceptable to all sides,” BJP’s Pinkai Misra said told HT.
Misra, citing the example of the Supreme Court’s intervention in the Ram Temple issue, said he underlined that the government erred by not filing a petition seeking a stay on the high court order which directed the state government to recommend the inclusion of the Meitei community in the ST list.
“There is tension in the state because people feel that one community is more dominant in the HC,” he said.
RJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha, meanwhile, said there is a “trust deficit” between people in the state and CM.
Calling it a “failure of governance”, DMK lawmaker Tiruchi Siva told HT, “One part of India is burning, and the PM has not expressed words of concern... we see videos of children stranded in forests. The intensity of violence has not reduced even after home minister’s visit.”
Lashing out at the government, the TMC, in a statement, said there is a “pervading sense of hopelessness, fear, and desperation” in the state and an all-party delegation should be sent to the strife-torn state to boost the confidence of the people. “When Manipur burns, Assam is affected, Meghalaya is affected, the entire North-East is affected. The whole nation is affected. Is the Union Government trying to turn Manipur into Kashmir?” the statement said.
BJP president JP Nadda said the situation in Manipur is “very sensitive and needs to be handled with sensitivity”, adding that the problem is rooted in many historical factors. “The Modi government is doing everything possible to bring the situation back to normal, we are sure that peace will return to Manipur very soon,” a person quoting Nadda said, seeking anonymity.
The meeting, chaired by Shah, was attended by leaders from the Naga People’s Front, the Mizo National Front, Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma (National People’s Party); All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader M Thambi Durai; Sanjay Singh from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Priyanka Chaturvedi from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), among other leaders.
Besides, Union ministers Pralhad Joshi, Nityanand Rai and Ajay Kumar Mishra, Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, and the director of Intelligence Bureau Tapan Deka were also present at the meeting.
At least 115 have died in the violence that broke out in the state since May 3. Clashes first broke out on May 3 in Churachandpur town after tribal Kuki groups called for protests against a court-proposed tweak to the state’s reservation matrix, granting scheduled tribe (ST) status to the majority Meitei community. Violence quickly engulfed the state where ethnic fault lines run deep, displacing tens of thousands of people who fled burning homes and neighbourhoods into jungles, often across state borders. The authorities clamped a curfew and suspended internet, pumping in additional security forces to force a break in the spiraling clashes.
(With inputs from Saubhadra Chatterji)