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NEW DELHI — Amid spike in violence in Manipur, the Congress on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the troubled state before the Parliament session this month and demanded Home Minister Amit Shah’s resignation for the “double engine government’s complete failure” there.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said Modi must first meet an all-party delegation from Manipur and then also call an all-party meeting at the national level ahead of the Parliament session starting November 25.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here along with Manipur Congress chief K Meghachandra Singh and AICC in-charge of state Girish Chodankar, Ramesh demanded that Shah and Chief Minister N Biren Singh must resign.
“From May 3, 2023, Manipur is burning and Prime Minister Modi visits various countries of the world, gives sermons, but could not find time to visit Manipur. So, our first demand is that PM should take time out before the Parliament session to visit Manipur and meet political parties, politicians, civil society groups, and people in relief camps there,” Ramesh said.
He said the Congress also demands that the prime minister should meet an all-party delegation from Manipur and then also call an all-party meeting be called at the national level.
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“From July 31, 2024, there is no full-time governor. Before that an ST person was governor but she was removed within 18 months. We demand that immediately a full-time governor be appointed,” Ramesh said.
The Congress also alleged that the prime minister has “outsourced” Manipur to the home minister.
“There is a strange ‘jugalbandi’ between the home minister and the failed CM. Why the home minister has not taken cognizance of the CM’s failures and why has he been attempting to save him?” Ramesh said.
If the BJP government, the prime minister and the home minister honestly want to fight the drug mafia then why do they not act on the cases pending before the courts, he said, adding the immediate need was for the PM to visit Manipur.
“The pain of Manipur is the pain of the country. More than 300 people have died and over 60,000 have been displaced. It is a story of the complete failure of the double engine government,” Ramesh said.
The BJP got 32 out of 60 seats in the 2022 polls but within 15 months Manipur began to burn, he said.
“The double engine government has failed and has been derailed. The Home Minister is directly responsible. We want the Home Minister to resign because it is his responsibility,” he said.
Manipur Congress chief K Meghachandra Singh alleged that there is an unprecedented turmoil and “complete anarchy” prevailing under the double engine government.
He alleged that there is no law and order at all. It is really very painful what the entire people of Manipur have to endure. Abductions of innocent people and killing of innocent people, particularly women and children, is very unfortunate, he said.
“We can recall the statement of Narendra Modi ji in February 2017 when he said in an election campaign, those who cannot ensure peace in Manipur, have no right to govern the state. I want to ask the PM is the double engine government maintaining law and order,” he said.
He said Manipur is a state in the unit of India and asked why Modi is “neglecting” Manipur which is becoming a forgotten state by this “Modi regime”.
“He (PM) never speaks on Manipur. There is a total failure of law and order.
“The CM has no right to continue. I want to urge the PM to immediately visit Manipur and give an appointment to Manipur leaders, including BJP ministers and Congress leaders,” Meghachandra said.
He said gross violations of human rights have happened in Manipur.
Chodankar said violence is the tragic byproduct of the rule of the double engine government.
“The state has become headless; there is no leader who can take out the state from this violence and unrest,” he said.
Chodankar said frustration is leading to abduction and violence. It is an indication of the failure of the double engine government and also a humanitarian crisis prevailing there, he said.
“This is a complete failure of the PM and CM. The prime minister did not find a single day to visit the state.
“The Congress tried its best to restore peace. Rahul Gandhi visited Manipur thrice and our president Mallikarjun Kharge ji also visited, our whole leadership kept on raising the issue to contribute to bringing peace in Manipur,” Chodankar said.
The prime minister should engage directly with Manipur’s people to curb further destruction and violence, restoring peace, he said.
Violence has continued to rock the state as offices of the Congress and the BJP have been ransacked in the hill district of Jiribam where an unidentified body was found earlier.
The incidents occurred after irate mobs set fire to the residences of three BJP legislators, one of whom is a senior minister, and a Congress MLA in various districts of Imphal Valley where an indefinite curfew has been clamped.
Security forces also foiled the attempt of the agitators to storm the ancestral residence of the Manipur chief minister on Saturday evening.
The Congress has been attacking the prime minister for not visiting Manipur, besides slamming the Centre for its handling of the situation in the ethnic strife-torn northeastern state.
More than 220 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.