New Delhi: On a day when Congress demanded the resignations of Amit Shah and Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, the Union Home Minister held a high-level meeting with senior officials in Delhi and took some important decisions on deployment of security in the northeastern state.
The country’s main Opposition party urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the northeastern state and call an all-party meeting ahead of Parliament’s winter session that starts on November 25.
“The Prime Minister had outsourced Manipur to the Union Home minister. The singular achievement of the Home minister is to protect the Manipur chief minister (Biren Singh). The Home minister has not protected the innocent people, the innocent women and children of Manipur. He should take the responsibility and resign,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said at a press conference in Delhi on Monday.
“From May 3, 2023 Manipur has been on fire. PM has visited various countries across the world but has not found any time to visit Manipur. Our first demand is for the PM to visit Manipur before the Parliament session, meet political parties, relief camps,” Ramesh added.
Ethnic clashes over the last year and a half have devastated Manipur. The recent spate of violence was triggered by the killing of three women and three children.
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Shah, who rushed to the national Capital after cancelling scheduled election meetings in poll-bound Maharashtra, met officials to discuss ways to bolster security in Manipur.
It was decided to send an additional 50 companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF), comprising over 5,000 personnel, to Manipur. While 35 units will be from the CRPF, the rest will be from BSF.
Besides deployment of additional CRPF personnel, there were deliberations on whether to further reimpose Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in hyper-sensitive areas.
AFSPA has been reimposed in five police stations.
The meeting discussed a joint action plan involving Central, state forces and other agencies to work together to restore peace and normalcy, according to sources.
It was also stressed that all stakeholders have to be taken into confidence to create an atmosphere for dialogue between the warring ethnic groups of Kukis and Meiteis.
