Congress delegation meets President Droupadi Murmu over Manipur issue

An eightmember team of Congress led by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday met President Droupadi Murmu appraising her of the situation in Manipur where violence erupted on May 3 and demanded a probe by a highlevel inquiry committee headed by a serving or retired Supreme Court Judge reported news agency IANSTaking to Twitter Mallikarjun Kharge said It is with a deep sense of loss and hurt that we humbly submitted a memorandum to the President of India for her kind intervention so that the extraordinary situation confronting Manipur can be redressed and normalcy can be brought in urgentlyAs a responsible political party the Indian National Congress is ever ready to lend support to any initiative to restore peace normalcy and harmony in Manipur We humbly submit the following 12 demands for immediate action Only then there will be peace in the state he addedAs a responsible political party the Indian National Congress is ever ready to lend support to any initiative to restore peace normalcy and harmony in ManipurWe humbly submit the following 12 demands for immediate actionOnly then there will be peace in the state 22 pictwittercomMNP1ReUNLjmdash Mallikarjun Kharge kharge May 30 2023According to the news agency IANS addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi after submitting the memorandum with the President Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said Our delegation went to meet President Murmu over the Manipur issue The delegation was led by Congress chief Kharge and a fourpage memorandum was submitted and demanded what action should be takenHe also said that 22 years ago in June 2001 Manipur was burning and even the high court and state Assembly was burnt in the stateThen it was BJPs Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and today it is yet again BJPs Prime Minister Narendra Modi The divisive and polarised politics of BJP is responsible for the same Ramesh allegedSlamming the Prime Minister Ramesh said Modi was busy in Karnataka elections when Manipur was burning since May 3 We have been demanding since then that the Centre should take strict actionRamesh further said that it has given 12 points in its memorandumManipurs former Chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh who is also the CLP leader in Manipur said It has never happened in the history of Manipur What is happening in India is unfortunate This unfortunate incident began on May 3 and many people have diedTargeting the government over the violent incidents in Manipur between Maitei and Kuki communities Singh said We dont know what is the agenda of Centre and state governments Still firing is reported and today morning it was reported that two more people died Still most of the dead bodies are kept at hospital mortuary and they are not trying to identify them People know that this has never happened beforeThe CLP leader said that Modi was busy in Karnataka till May 10 and we thought that he will look after Manipur after the elections were over there but it was only yesterday that Union Home Minister Amit Shah came to ManipurDont know what the hidden agenda of the government is We want to save the people of Manipur he saidReferring to the 2001 unfortunate incident that took place when Vajpayee was PM and LK Advani was his deputy he said After the amendment of the ground rule people of Manipur felt the integrity of Manipur was broken and that was the reason for the unfortunate incident then Now again this violence in May this year such incidents happened again If we check correctly more than 100 people are missing Around 2000 houses have been burnt and gutted Those staying in their house are taking shelter in relief camps without any supply of essential itemsWe submitted a memorandum to Indias President to save Manipur And on Wednesday we will be meeting the Home Minister there in Imphal Singh saidIn the fourpage memorandum the party highlighted the extraordinary situation confronting Manipur that can be redressed at the earliest and normalcy can be brought in urgentlyThe memorandum of the Congress highlighted the details of violence and arson in the stateThe memorandum said Every passing day there are reports of firing and villagers have been forced to form selfdefence committees with licensed guns to ward off attacks There are allegations that the largescale arson is an attempt at ethnic cleansing and there have also been sinister attempts to turn the ethnic conflict into a communal clash with the selected targeting of churches and few temples But the people of Manipur have largely resisted these designs so farAt this critical juncture without resorting to blame games there is a serious deficit in the efforts of the state government to contain the arson and violence If firm action were taken on May 3 evening to prevent the arson in the hill districts the situation would not have deteriorated this badly it readIt also said that the central government provided a large number of security personnel to maintain law and order in the state but the situation is still tense with violence continuing to erupt in few pockets and the entire state has turned into a tinderboxDespite personnel changes in the administration the people have demonstrated severe trust deficit both in the administration and the law enforcement agencies which needs immediate redressal Without fixing this it would be extremely difficult to bring back normalcy to the state it said adding that the gravity of the situation may be evaluated from the fact that gun fights between the two warring communities and arson of hundreds of houses continued resulting in the deaths of nearly ten persons including security personnel while the Army Chief General Manoj Pande and Union MoS Home Nityananda Rai were present in ManipurThe memorandum also said that the people of Manipur are feeling a deep sense of hurt that they have been treated as secondclass citizens as there were no visits till May 24 from the Union government and there has been total and complete silence on the crisisThe party demanded the letter and spirit of the existing Constitutional provisions related to Manipur must be protected and the trust between communities should be restored through reconciliation and dialogue and a highlevel inquiry commission should be constituted headed by a serving or retired Supreme Court JudgeThe party also demanded firm and sustained efforts must be made to control violence in every part of the state for the immediate restoration of peace harmony and normalcy The Union government must immediately take all possible measures to control and confine all militant groups and ensure that all armed civilian groups be stopped forthwith by taking appropriate actionThe party also demanded that villages near the foothills of both communities must be covered with adequate security so that armed militants do not intrude and disturb peace The central government should take steps for the rehabilitation of all displaced persons at their original place or in safer areas with suitable security arrangements Payment of dignified and reasonable compensation for loss of life property and all other things concerned to all the victims and affected persons it demandedThe party further demanded that there is a need for immediate identification of those who have died and handing their bodies over to the bereaved families for the last rites and a special drive must be carried out to trace many numbers of missing peopleWith inputs from IANS