The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on Sunday launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister N Biren, accusing him of inconsistency and incompetency in addressing the ongoing unrest in Manipur.
During a press conference held at the Congress Bhawan in Imphal, Manipur Congress vice-president Harishwar Goswami highlighted the chief minister’s changing statements and deemed him unfit for office.
Goswami recalled CM Biren’s recent statements, where he attributed the ongoing confusion in handling the crisis to the proliferation of CSOs, blamed the previous government for the crisis, and even contradicted his previous stance by asserting that the crisis was not a law-and-order issue.
The vice-president emphasised that such flip-flopping indicates a lack of understanding on the present crisis and direction on the part of the chief minister.
At the onset of the crisis, Biren had admitted that the crisis stemmed from a failure of law and order, Goswami noted.
He contended that the state government handling the crisis is not related with the growth of CSOs in Manipur, as the demands of all these organisations were essentially the same: safeguarding territorial and administrative integrity, halting attacks on civilians by narco-terrorists in fringe areas, removing buffer zones, and resettling displaced victims, among others.
Goswami also criticised the continued attacks on innocent civilians in fringe areas since the last four-five days by narco-terrorists despite assurances from Union Home Minister Amit Shah to handle the matters in the hills.
He argued that it should not be a daunting task for the Indian military, the world’s fourth strongest armed forces, to control the few narco-terrorists responsible for these attacks.
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Further addressing the chief minister’s alleged statement that convening an Assembly and passing resolutions was not an easy task, Goswami declared that if the chief minister found it difficult, he was no longer suitable for the role.
Calling for Biren’s resignation to make way for a more competent leader, he added that such will not lead to imposition of PR in Manipur.
The vice-president also lamented the failure of both the central and state governments to declare the safeguarding of Manipur’s territorial and administrative integrity in the Parliament and Assembly respectively.
Regarding the recent one-day Assembly session that lasted only 11 minutes, Goswami disputed its classification as a normal session. He argued that since a 15-day notice was not served, it was null and void to call it a normal session.
So as per the Article 174 and the Supreme Court ruling, there is a constitutional crisis in Manipur as the government failed to call a normal Assembly session in six months, he said, adding that the last normal session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly was adjourned on March 3.
In response to accusations by minister Govindas and former chief minister Radha Binod Koijam blaming Congress protest for the failure to discuss the ongoing crisis during the one-day Assembly session, Goswami dismissed the allegations as baseless.
He pointed out that the private member resolutions submitted by the five Congress MLAs for discussion on various pressing issues were not included in the business list, indicating the state government’s reluctance to address the ongoing state matters.
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