Source: The Imphal Free Press
Imphal, July 06:
The All Manipur United Clubs� Organisation (AMUCO), the organisation spearheading the democratic people�s movement, has today rebuffed the invitation of the Union minister of state for Home affairs, ID Swami, to meet him for official dialogue on the ground that the Prime Minister has not seen or reached Manipur after more than two weeks of the historic catastrophe of June 18.�It is definitely on the record that in majority of lesser events that never touched the flashpoint, the Prime Minister had been on the spot within a day or two.
The AMUCO as well as the people�s sentiments were deeply hurt when the Prime Minister invented ingenious reasons to alienate himself from the 20 lakh people out of 23 lakh population of the state� the AMUCO said in a statement.
While expressing gratitude to ID Swami for showing sensitivity to the problems and inviting it for discussion, the AMUCO, in a letter to the Union MoS regretted the inability to meet him and discuss the present problem of Manipur stating that the organisation respects the opinion of the people not to hold any discussion unless the cease-fire extension to Manipur is withdrawn.
The letter, said the people of Manipur take the extension of cease-fire to Manipur as the implementation of colonial policy of �divide and rule� by the government of India and an attempt to divide the people of Manipur on communal lines.
There never existed �Naga� and �Kuki� in Manipur and they were the creations of the British colonists.
Various groups numbering more than 32 co-existed peacefully in Manipur as Meitei, Tangkhul, Kabui, Koireng, Thadou, Mao, Maram, Koireng etc.
for many centuries being bound together by a symbiotic bond, said the letter.