Lok Sabha MP Angomcha Bimol Akoijam on Sunday alleged the NDA government of dictating terms on the N Biren Singh-led BJP state government in the conflict-ridden state of Manipur.
Akoijam, who grabbed the headlines recently for his maiden Parliament speech on the Manipur crisis, raised the allegations in an interview with the Hindustan Times’ Kumkum Chadha.
He demanded the ruling BJP to come ‘clean’ on the Manipur issue.
“The chief minister is saying that his hands are tied. There is a subversion of the autonomy of the state government by the Centre. The state government of Manipur is unable or too meek to stand up for the interests of the state,” he said.
“The Centre is dictating terms. Our chief minister and his cabinet colleagues are not able to stand up. It is not black and white, but a more serious problem here. You are subverting a constitutional structure, i.e relationship between the Centre and state government. The Union government is dictating terms without dismissing the state government,” he alleged.
“Today it is Manipur, tomorrow it could be somewhere else. There is an erosion of the federal structure in this country. This subversion has served a particular political purpose. There is a willing scapegoat,” he further said.
He further alleged that the “the state government is supposed to defend the interests of the state. It means defending the political and executive autonomy which is a constitutionally sanctioned aspect. You are not able to defend your own government’s prerogatives. How do you expect to defend the people?”
He called the Centre ‘dishonest’ and said, “The Centre should have resolved the concerns of the people, but they didn’t do it. It’s high time for us to realise that there are serious problems in which the state and Union government have worked in tandem to subvert the constitutional structure.”
