Imphal: Amidst the devastating ethnic violence in Manipur, the opposition Congress on Sunday said that the people of the state do not support the imposition of the President’s rule in the state while the party announced that their MLAs and MPs will not resign as certain civil society organisations are demanding.
Former three-term Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Okram Ibobi Singh (2002-2017) said that demands for the resignations of the elected MLAs and MPs are only to divert the attention from the present crisis in Manipur.
He said that if the resignation of the Congress MLAs and MPs helps in the solution of the present ethnic crisis, they are ready to quit their membership in the legislative bodies but at the moment there is no reason to resign.
“It is the responsibility of the Central and state governments to restore peace and normalcy in the state by involving all communities, civil society organisations, political parties and all the stakeholders,” Singh told the media.
Claiming that the constitutional machinery completely collapsed in Manipur, he said that the people of Manipur also do not favour the imposition of the President’s rule.
Resignation of incumbent Chief Minister N. Biren Singh or replacement of the Chief Minister is an internal matter of the ruling BJP, the 76-year-old Congress leader said.
Meanwhile, 13 civil society organisations belonging to the Meitei community, have called for the resignations of all 50 MLAs in Manipur, including Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, citing a lack of political will and warning of a potential public uprising.
Lok Sabha member (Congress) Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, who along with top state Congress leaders were present during the media briefing, said that the Lok Sabha election mandate went against the present government and the ruling BJP.
It is the sole responsibility of the central and state governments to resolve the crisis as soon as possible.
“We are raising the Manipur crisis both in the parliament and outside the parliament. Before us no other leaders raised the Manipur issue in the Parliament so elaborately,” said Bimol Akoijam, a former Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.
In the April-May Lok Sabha elections, the opposition Congress won in both the Lok Sabha seats – Inner Manipur (Angomcha Bimol Akoijam) and Outer Manipur (Alfred Kanngam S Arthur) defeating the candidates of the ruling BJP and its ally.
The academic-turned-politician said that the BJP and the ruling party leaders are making drama and misleading the people by raising different issues at different times without performing their constitutional responsibility.
To a question about the imposition of the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 in six police stations in five districts last week, Bimol Akoijam said that the people of the northeast have enough experience against the AFSPA.
He said that Manipur is the only state in India where the Centre imposes AFSPA in certain areas and the state government promulgates the law in certain areas.
“Massacre of people in Nagaland’s Oting still very much alive in our memory,” the MP said.
In all 14 people were killed and 30 others injured by the security forces at Oting in Nagaland’s Mon district in December 2021 in a case of “mistaken identity”.
Bimol Akoijam said that in Manipur there was erosion of the federal structure in the state as certain parts of the state were controlled by the Centre and certain parts by the state government.
“There is no minimum coordination among the security forces in Manipur despite a Unified Command Structure existing,” the parliament member said and pointed out that all political leaders must raise their voices unitedly against the violence.
