Mizoram CM defends letter to PM
Source: The Sangai Express / Agencies
New Delhi, September 24 2015:
Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla has defended his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the violence in Manipur over its State Assembly passing three controversial Bills, and said he wanted to help his people in the neighbouring State.
"I don`t want to antagonise anybody.
I simply want to help my people in Manipur enjoy their rights within the Constitution of India," Lal Thanhawla said in an interview that will be published in the forthcoming issue of the North East Sun magazine.
His remarks came after Manipur`s Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam said Lal Thanhawla, a fellow Congressman, should have consulted his party first before writing to the Prime Minister.
The Manipur unit of the Congress has also complained to the party high command.
Following a months-long agitation by people living in the valley districts of Manipur, the Assembly on August 31 passed the Protection of Manipur Peoples Bill, the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Bill (Seventh Amendment), and the Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill ostensibly to protect the rights of the indigenous people.
The day the Bills were passed, protesters, mainly from tribal organisations, torched five houses belonging to Congress lawmakers.
These included the houses of State Health and Family Welfare Minister Phungzathang Tonsing and Lok Sabha member from Outer Manipur Thangso Baite in Churachandpur district.
The violence and resultant police action left at least nine people dead.
According to the tribes in the hills of Manipur, the Bills would directly undermine the existing safeguards for the hill areas regarding land-ownership and population influx, as the primary threat for the tribal people came not from outside the State but the Meitei people from the valley itself.