Congress slams Centre's apathy to ongoing crisis
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, June 02 2023:
Manipur Pradesh Con-gress Committee (MPCC) strongly criticised alleged apathy by the Central government in address-ing the ongoing, crisis in the state and expressed that if a similar crisis were to occur in a mainland state, the entire country would descend into chaos.
During a press conference held at Congress Bhawan on Friday, CLP leader Okram Ibobi termed the events that unfolded since May 3 as unfortunate and ex-pressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives and extensive damage to properties due to the clashes.
In response to the crisis, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi despatched a fact-finding team to the affected areas.
However, due to inadequate security, the team was unable to enter the affected areas and interact with the displaced people, he said.
While pointing out that Union home minister Amit Shah visited the state after nearly a month since the violence erupted, Ibobi stated that the crisis could have been better controlled if the home minister had visited earlier.
Despite the official death toll, Ibobi highlighted that the actu-al number of casualties will be much higher, as there are still cases of missing persons.
He crit-icised the Central government for exhibiting a dismissive attitude towards Manipur and its people, despite them being bona fide citizens of the country.
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While the Congress party welcomed the compensation and govern-ment job announcements for the next of kin, Ibobi strongly condemned lack of clarity on the people's demand by the union home minister.
He also demand-ed clarification regarding the nature of the proposed inquiry, whether it would be conducted as a judicial inquiry or under the Commission of Inquiry Act 1952.The former chief minister fur-ther demanded clarity on the selection of six cases out of over 1000 registered for investigation by a special team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
He emphasised the need for trans-parent criteria to determine when cases should be transferred to the CBI or another indepen-dent investigating agency.
Ibobi assured that the Congress party would extend full cooper-ation to such investigation.
He added that a Congress del-egation had met with the Pres-ident of India and submitted a memorandum regarding the on-going crisis in the state.
Copies of the memorandum were also forwarded to the Prime Minister's office and the union home min-ister's office.
Ibobi acknowledged that the party's leaders were in the national capital at the time and couldn't attend the meet-ing with Amit Shah in Imphal.
However, he mentioned that they had sought an appointment with the union home minister but were unable to get one.
He expressed gratitude to Shah for meeting with displaced people, civil society organisations, and various political parties.
Ibobi further highlighted that chief minister of the state gen-erally serves as chairman of the Unified Command of security forces.
However, the union home minister stated that the Uni-fied Command, chaired by the state security advisor, would handle the situation and take measures to restore peace.
Ibobi questioned whether the Central government was undermining the democratically elected gov-ernment of the state.
He called upon the people of different communities in the state to re-solve their differences and coexist peacefully while upholding the unity and integrity of Manipur.
MPCC president MLA K Meghachandra addressed the incidents of armed at-tacks on villages and the burning of houses, followed by gunfights that occurred even during Amit Shah's visit to the state.
Further-more, Meghachandra not-ed that Shah's visit failed to reopen National Highway 2, which serves as the life-line of the state.
Asserting that the present crisis was instigated by armed Kuki militants from across the border, he questioned the modality of the combing operation proposed for the state.
Meghachandra fur-ther remarked that the dou-ble-engine government has derailed, leaving the public confused about whom to approach to restore peace and normal.