CM hails Modi, Amit Shah for stand on Jammu and Kashmir
'Tab kept on talk between NSCN-IM and Delhi'
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 06 2019: On behalf of the State's BJP legislators, office bearers, party workers and the public of Manipur, Chief Minister N Biren has hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for scrapping Articles 370 and 35A from the Constitution regarding Kashmir with sheer political will.

Speaking to media persons at the Canchipur office of BJP State unit, N Biren remarked that the dynamic leadership of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah has fulfilled a long cherished of the people of the country.

Since 1952, BJP has been demanding that all should live together, there should be no two flags or two Prime Ministers and there should not be two Constitutions.

CM hails Modi, Amit Shah for stand on Jammu and Kashmir

On account of Articles 370 and 35A, there were restrictions in moving to Kashmir even though Jammu & Kashmir is said to be a part of India.

Defying the restriction that no citizens from other parts of the country can enter J&K without permission, then BJP leader Syama Prasad Mookherjee and late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went to Kashmir without obtaining any permits and they were arrested by police and imprisoned, Biren said.

For many decades J&K remained a big question on the integrity of India.

He then conveyed gratitude to all the MPs who supported the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha as well as the Bill which paved way for bifurcation of J&K into two Union Territories.

Further hailing the passage of Triple Talaq Bill, N Biren said that the Bill would now ensure that Muslim women in the country get their due rights.

To a query regarding the Naga peace talk, Biren said that the BJP-led coalition Government has been closely monitoring the political dialogue going on between Government of India and NSCN-IM since the Government was sworn in on March 15, 2017 .

A two-member consultative committee was formed to monitor the political dialogue and the committee has been collecting feedbacks apart from keeping a close tab on the progress of the peace talk, asserted the Chief Minister.

With the primary objective of ensuring peaceful co-existence of all the communities which have been living together in the State since ages, CSOs based in the valley held a meeting with the consultative committee yesterday and discussed whatever feedbacks the committee gathered from Delhi.

As the appointment of interlocutor RN Ravi as the Governor of Nagaland and former (Nagaland) Governor PB Acharya's statement that a solution to the Naga peace talk must be achieved within the year demand close examination, the meeting discussed about how to articulate Manipur's position to the Centre, Biren conveyed.

So far, the Central Government has not spelt out any specific step nor has it asked the State Government's position on the issue, said the Chief Minister.

Nonetheless, the State Government has been keeping itself abreast with the latest developments, he continued.

The Government is also working to hold another meeting between CSOs based in the hills and the consultative committee so as to ensure that any solution worked out between New Delhi and NSCN-IM is peaceful, Biren said.

To another query about the Manipur People Bill, the Chief Minister claimed that he urged the Central authorities concerned to give clearance to the Bill every time he went to Delhi.

It appears that the Central Government has been consulting Constitutional experts regarding the Bill, he said.

He also informed that a team of Manipur Democratic Alliance left Imphal for Delhi yesterday to seek Central Government's approval of the Bill.

Earlier in the day while responding to a query raised by media persons at the end of a meeting held today at the Chief Minister's Secretariat on rain water harvesting initiatives, Biren stated that the scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A from the Constitution with regard to Jammu and Kashmir are very old demands of BJP.

The Chief Minister claimed that the bold step was taken after thinking over it several times by the country's Parliamentarians and BJP leaders, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

He added that the act of scrapping Articles 370 and 35A has nothing to do with Manipur.