INDIA Bloc all set for Delhi protest
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, December 08 2024: The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) Bloc is all set to stage aprotest demonstration at New Delhi on Monday to demand restoration of peace and normalcy in Manipur.

Speaking to media persons at Congress Bhavan, BT Road here this afternoon, MPCC spokesman Hareshwar Goswami said that a meeting of INDIA Bloc, Manipur held on November 25 decided to stage a protest demonstration at Delhi.

The bloc was planning to hold the protest on December 6 but it was postponed due to certain difficulties, he said.

The planned protest will be staged tomorrow regardless of whether the authority concerned gives permission or not, the MPCC spokesman said.

To make necessary preparations for the protest, INDIA Bloc, Manipur convenor Ksh Shanta and MPCC president K Meghachandra have already reached Delhi.

Four Congress MLAs left for Delhi today.

More Congress members and leaders of different political parties which are constituent parties of INDIA Bloc would be leaving for Delhi, Hareshwar said.

The Manipur crisis erupted on May 3, 2023 when Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankar was visiting Manipur University.

The violence has so far killed 258 people, thousands have been injured, around 60,000 people displaced and around 30 are missing, he said.

While the Government of India remains totally indifferent to the protracted crisis, the State Government has been only waiting for the Centre's instruction without taking any bold step on its own, he remarked.

There are varied narratives and diverse perspectives on the origin of the crisis while some groups have been blaming one another.

The Chief Minister once said that he was responsible for the violent crisis but on the next occasion he blamed geopolitics, Hareshwar Goswami said.

Some other people have opined that the violent crisis is a fallout of India's misplaced foreign policy, he noted.

Letting its own people suffer so much for such a long period on account of India's misplaced foreign policy is something unprecedented in the country's history, he continued.

Chief Minister N Biren often said that the violent crisis erupted in response to the State Government's War on Drugs, extensive drive against poppy plantation and crackdown against illegal immigrants, he said.

If what the Chief Minister stated was true, it is highly questionable whether the Government did not take up any precautions or it did not listen to intelligence inputs, the MPCC spokesman said.

Congress party and the INDIA Bloc have submitted a number of memorandums to both the Centre and the State Government and repeatedly appealed to bring an end to the protracted crisis and restore peace and normalcy in the State, he said.

The fervent appeal made by the Congress party and the INDIA Bloc to the Chief Minister to convene an all party meeting to discuss the issue went unheeded and so was the CLP leader's suggestion to discuss the issue thoroughly in the State Assembly, he decried.

He said that BJP's double-engine Government has been overlooking the protracted crisis.

It is this lackadaisical attitude of the double-engine which has compelled INDIA Bloc to go to Delhi and stage a protest demonstration at the National capital, Hareshwar Goswami said.

INDIA Bloc has been preparing to carry on different modes of democratic agitation until the crisis is brought to an end, he added.

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