New Delhi, Dec 9: Leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) on Monday staged a protest in the national capital over the Manipur violence issue and once again demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the northeastern state.
The leaders of the INDIA bloc, mostly from Manipur and other northeastern states joined the protest in central Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, CPI leader D Raja and several others too joined the protest.
Ramesh and Raja slammed the Prime Minister for not visiting Manipur in last one and half year since the violence erupted in the state on May 3, 2023.
The INDIA bloc leaders.also issued a statement and said that for the last one year and seven months, Manipur has been reeling under the scourge of an unprecedented violence in the annals of free India’s history.
It said that the state has been plunged into a civil war-like situation right under the watch of the so-called” double engine government” led by the BJP both at the Centre and the State.
In this unparallel tragedy, hundreds have been killed, including women and children, scores of villages have been wiped out, 60,000 plus people have been displaced and many are reported missing. This is despite the presence of more than 70,000 security personnel deployed in the state, the statement read.
Besides this colossal human calamity in the midst of an increasingly divided society induced by the sectarian and communal forces, criminal activities such as extortion and collection of “illegal tax” by the non-state elements have also been on the rise, it alleged.
Despite such unprecedented crisis, the central government led by Narendra Modi- Amit Shah duo has remained unresponsive, it further said.
Targeting the state government, it said instead, along with N. Biren Singh led state government, they have been issuing platitudes and contradictory and false statements on the condition.
“To add salt to the wounds the miseries and humiliation of the people of Manipur, the Prime Minister has yet to pay a visit to the state, a traumatized state of his own country while expressing concerns about conflicts abroad, and even paying visits to these countries to show solidarity and share the sufferings of the people in these foreign lands,” it said.
It must go without saying that threat to Manipur as a constituent state of the Indian Union is a threat to the country. The sufferings of the people of the state are also the woes of the people of the country. The day we forget this simple truth, it will be an invitation to destroy the unity and intregity of the country, it added.
