Manipur parties react to ‘immigrant’ remark of BJP vision document

Our Correspondent
IMPHAL,February 4

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he political parties in Manipur have sharply reacted to the report of referring people in North East (NE) as “immigrant” in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s vision document released in connection with the forthcoming Delhi assembly elections.
Denouncing the act, the Communist Party of India (CPI) Manipur state council workers staged a sit-in demonstration in Imphal while Janata Dal (United) Manipur State has attacked the ruling party at centre.
Former MLA N Mangi of CPI Manipur state council on the sideline of the sit-in, alleged that the racial discrimination meted out against the NE people, is now exposed by BJP by the using the term such as immigrant. Such terms should not be used to refer the citizens of the country,he added.Demanding complete removal of the term from the so called vision document, former MLA from Kumbi constituency in Manipur’s Bishnupur district asks to probe the incident.
JD(U) state unit also attacked the BJP for referring people in NE region of the country as ‘Immigrant’.
Claiming that the move of BJP clearly indicates what the party functionaries felt in their mind, President M Tombi of JD(U) state unit said how can we trust party of such nature. “We still have doubt even though there are reports of deleting the word ‘Immigrant’ from the document,” he added.
Recalling the historic June uprising that took place on June 18, 2001 wherein as many as 18 persons lost their lives during police firing, Tombi said the then incident was also broke out because of the then NDA government tries to use three the words ‘without territorial limits’ in the ceasefire agreement signed between NSCN(IM) and Government of India. He further added that there might be some hidden agenda for using the word ‘immigrant’ in the vision document.
Meanwhile Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)head quarters in New Delhi clarified that they have no bad intention towards the people of North East and people of NE states are as good as Delhi citizens. BJP leaders at its headquarters have also clarified that the word ‘ immigrants’ which was unmistakably used in the vision documents of the party which was released in the national capital on Tuesday in connection with the Delhi assembly polls, has been removed now.
The development has been conveyed to the BJP Manipur Pradesh president Th Chaoba by the central leaders, says BJP state spokesman RK Shivachandra in a clarification which was made available here.
The spokesperson further added that BJP Manipur Pradesh would never subscribe to the term ‘immigrants’ used in the BJP Vision Document. State unit President Th Chaoba has been pressing to remove the word from the vision document.