Newmai News Network
Imphal, June 2: The Centre’s intervention to violence in Manipur was too late, according to senior Congress leader and former chief minister of Manipur, O Ibobi Singh who said on Friday.
The violence erupted on May 3 and even as it takes only two hours to reach Imphal from New Delhi by any charter flight but the Union Home minister came to Imphal after 26 days since the violence unfolded, Ibobi said, and asked the reason for the delay in his visit to intervene to end the crisis.
Even though his visit was too late, the Congress party welcomed his visit and the initiative to bring back normalcy in the state.
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Ibobi said that the Centre would have the information of every single incident that occurred in the state. If the Centre was actually very serious and acted on time, the violence might have been controlled that caused large scale losses of precious lives, properties and displacement.
It seems that the Centre treated the citizens of this small state as second class citizens even though they are the bonafide citizens of the country, Ibobi alleged.
The former three time chief minister, however, welcomed the Centre’s decision of conducting a probe of the violence by a retired high court judge but whether it was simply a judicial enquiry or it is to be conducted under Commission of Inquiry Act 1952 needed to be clarified on the part of the Centre.
“The Congress wants to know”, he said. “The people of the state want to know clearly”, he added.
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O Ibobi Singh then questioned the present position of the BJP-led government in the state while reacting to Union Home minister Amit Shah’s announcement on formation of an inter-agency unified command under security advisor to the Manipur government.
On Thursday, Shah had said that an inter-agency unified command would be set up under the leadership of security advisor Kuldiep Singh for better co-ordination among law enforcing agencies.
The former chief minister said that in the prevailing unrest situation in the state, the people would like to know the position of the government formed by the mandate of the people.
In insurgency affected states like Manipur, the chief minister is the chairman of the United Command to counter the insurgency, Ibobi pointed out.
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But, if Amit Shah’s announcement regarding formation of the United Command under the leadership of the temporary appointed security advisor was true then it amounts to disregard of the government in power formed by people’s mandate, he added.
Attending the press conference, Manipur Pradesh Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Keisham Meghachandra also echoed the same on the delay in the intervention by the Centre.
He said that the Union Home minister who came to the state after 26 days of the violence was only for the purpose of relief only, not to end the violence.
Even during the Union Home minister’s stay in the state, the violence continued unabated and deaths in the violence continued.
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