'Violence unrelated with ST demand'
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, June 03 2023:
While commending Union home minister Amit Shah's announcement for specific programmes towards bringing back peace and nor-malcy in the state, Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee of Manipur (STDCM) condemned Amit Shah's assertion that Manipur high court's ruling on ST status of Meetei/Meitei led to the present violence.
According to a statement of STDCM, the violence started during the Tribal Solidarity March organised by ATSUM on May 3 against the high court order on ST status of Meetei/Meitei in areas bor-dering Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts inhabited by the Kuki but the rally ended peacefully in other districts.
While insisting that the ongo-ing violence is unrelated with ST status demand at all, the STDCM said discussing thor-oughly incidents happened in Churachandpur few days before the rally will present a clear picture on this narrative.
After an open gym to be in-augurated the next day by CM was vandalised and torched on April 27 night, high tension gripped Churachandpur on April 28 following imposition of total shutdown on the day.
Apart from this, tension had already been prevailing in Churachandpur after gov-ernment conducted survey of forest area, crackdown on illegal poppy cultivation, illegal immigrants and possi-ble NRC exercise.
The tension exploded on May 3 during the Tribal Solidarity March with a premeditated plan.
How-ever, facts about outbreak of violence seemed to be not presented to Amit Shah and other Central government au-thorities when they visited the state.
Nevertheless, the com-mittee welcomes Amit Shah's programmes for bringing back peace and normalcy in the state though late.
The first and foremost step to bring back peace, however, is to put complete control over SoO militants, the STDCM said.
While asserting that the Meetei/Meitei community demanded ST status as per provision of Indian Consti-tution to give constitution-al protection to indigenous Meetei/Meitei community, the STDCM said it is the ques-tion of survival for the com-munity and not against any community.