Ex-CM Ibobi to represent Cong at all-party meet
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, June 23 2023:
Former chief minis-ter 0 Ibobi Singh will be the sole representative of the Congress at the all-par-ty meeting convened by Union Home minister Amit Shah in Delhi at 3 pm on Saturday.
The all-party meeting had been convened to fa-cilitate discussions among political leaders on the pre-vailing situation in Mani-pur and chalk up effective strategies and a collective approach to bring peace.
Mention may be made Amit Shah had visited the state for a three-day visit to take stock of the situ-ation following the ethnic violence which on May 3 .
As the visit could not bring the desired peace and vio-lence continued in the state, representatives of various political parties of the state camped in Delhi to meet PM Narendra Modi but in vain.
Amid the PM's foreign visits, Amit Shah called for an all-party meeting for which one each leader from every political party in the country has been invited.
However, for the Congress party, despite not being a national figure, Ibobi Singh has been recommended by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to repre-sent the party in the meet-ing on Saturday, for reasons best known to the party.
It may be mentioned that for-mer deputy chief minister Gaikhangam is a member of the 47-member steering committee of AICC.
Mention may be made that the Congress had said the meeting was "too little, too late" with the Congress president Rahul Gandhi stating it was clear that the all-party meeting was not important for the PM as it was being held at a time when he was not in the country.
He further said ef-forts to bring warring factions on the discussion table "will lack seriousness if they are done sitting in Delhi" .
Meanwhile, MPCC pres-ident K Meghachandra in-formed this daily that the Congress has various demands in connection with the eth-nic clash in the state.
He said that the all-party meeting should be chaired by PM Na-rendra Modi and the meeting should have been conducted in Imphal so as to enable the people of Manipur to provide the real message of the state.
Moreover, all armed groups should not be negotiated un-der any cost but make them to surrender their weapons.
He further informed that since the chief minister N Bi-ren had acknowledged that the ethnic clash erupted due to the failure of the state gov-ernment, he should resign.
The territorial integrity of Manipur should not be compromised under any circumstances and the central government should also ensure that all essential commodities reach Manipur without any hindrances.
Moreover, the relief, reha-bilitation and resettlement works of the displaced fami-lies should be taken up at the earliest, he stressed.