An eight-member team of Congress, led by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, on Tuesday met President Droupadi Murmu and submitted a memorandum delineating a plan of action to curb the ongoing violence in Manipur.
The delegation included former Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, state unit chief Keisham Meghachandra, and state in-charge Bhakta Charan Das, among other state leaders, demanded a probe by a high-level inquiry committee headed by a serving or retired Supreme Court Judge.
Speaking at a press conference at the Congress Headquarters in Delhi after meeting the President, Congress secretary in charge of communication, Jairam Ramesh said that the current crisis in Manipur is the result of the BJP’s divisive politics.
"It is also the intelligence failure of the state government”, Jairam said, adding that 22 years ago, in June 2001, Manipur was burning, and even the high court, state assembly were burned in the state.
“Then, it was BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and today, it is yet again BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The divisive and polarised politics of the BJP are responsible for the same,” Ramesh alleged.
“I don’t know what the hidden agenda of the (BJP) state government and the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre is. They (the state government) are not trying to identify the dead bodies and hand them over to the next of kin. If what happened in Manipur were to happen in any other state, the nation would burn. I don’t know what their intention is. Maybe they thought it was a small state. Let them kill each other. What will happen?” former CM Ibobi said.
In the memorandum, the Congress has requested “firm and sustained efforts” to control the violence between the tribal Kuki and non-tribal Meitei communities, and “for immediate restoration of peace, harmony, and normalcy”.
Every passing day there are reports of firing, and villagers have been forced to form self-defense committees with licensed guns to ward off attacks. There are allegations that the large-scale arson is an attempt at ethnic cleansing, and there have also been sinister attempts to turn the ethnic conflict into a communal clash with the selected targeting of churches and a few temples. But the people of Manipur have largely resisted these designs so far, the memorandum stated.
“The Union government must immediately take all possible measures to control and confine all militant groups (including those under SoO) and ensure that all armed civilian groups are stopped forthwith by taking appropriate action,” it added.
The party further suggested that villages near the foothills of the state for both the Kuki and Meitei communities must be covered with adequate security so that armed militants do not “intrude and disturb peace”.
The party further demanded that there is a need for immediate identification of those who have died and handing their bodies over to the bereaved families for the last rites, and a special drive must be carried out to trace large numbers of missing people.
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