New Delhi
Against the backdrop of Kuki groups demanding a separate state, the BJP on Friday iterated firmly that “there will be no compromise with Manipur’s territorial integrity” even as the Opposition said the “imposition of President’s Rule was no solution” to the turmoil the State is in.
Speaking on the issue, BJP’s northeast region in-charge, Sambit Patra, told news agency PTI, “I repeat, as far as the territorial integrity of Manipur is concerned, there will be no compromise with it.”
Patra’s reiteration of the BJP’s stand should reassure the majority Meiteis who are vehemently opposed to any division of Manipur.
Maintaining that the BJP was committed to continuing efforts to maintain peace and normalcy in Manipur, hit by 22 months of violence between Meiteis and Kukis and largely polarised along ethnic lines, Patra pointed out that the Assembly had not been dissolved but kept in a suspended animation, meaning that the formation of a new state government remained a possibility.
“The assembly is not dissolved and can be revived on any future date, as deemed fit by the president of India, depending on the circumstances and the situation on the ground in Manipur,” Patra said. The Manipur Assembly has a tenure till March 2027.
The BJP continues to enjoy a comfortable majority in the Assembly but due to the deep ethnic fault-lines its search for a consensus candidate to replace N Biren Singh, who resigned as Chief Minister on February 9, did not yield any result. And then given the Constitutional mandate to convene the Assembly by February 12, 2025, the BJP was left with no other choice and that led to the imposition of President’s Rule.
Ethnic violence that erupted on May 3, 2023, has so far claimed more than 250 lives and displaced thousands.
The Opposition has sharpened its attack against the Modi Government. The Congress came out hard against the Centre saying the imposition of President’s Rule in Manipur is a direct admission of the failure of the BJP governments at the Centre and the State even as it asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise to the people there.
“Narendra Modi ji, It is your party which has been ruling at the Centre for 11 years. It is your party which was ruling Manipur for 8 years. It is the BJP which was responsible for maintaining Law & Order in the state. It is your government which is responsible for National Security and border patrol. The imposition of President’s rule by YOU, suspending YOUR own party’s government is a direct admission on how YOU failed the people of Manipur,” Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post on X.
He said the Government has imposed President’s Rule not because it wanted to, but because there is a Constitutional crisis in the state, as none of the NDA MLAs are willing to accept the “baggage of your incompetence”.
“Your “Double Engine” ran over the lives of the innocent people of Manipur! High time you now step in Manipur and listen to the pain and trauma of the suffering people and apologise to them. Do you have the courage of conviction?” Kharge asked. The Congress chief said the people of Manipur will not forgive Prime Minister Modi and his party.
Earlier on Thursday, shortly after the imposition of President’s Rule, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the move is a belated admission by the BJP of their complete inability to govern in Manipur. “Now, PM Modi can no longer deny his direct responsibility for Manipur,” he said in a post on X.
“Has he finally made up his mind to visit the state, and explain to the people of Manipur and India his plan to restore peace and normalcy?” Gandhi asked.
For its part, the CPI(M) said: “The imposition of President’s rule in Manipur underlines the utter bankruptcy of the BJP double engine government under whose rule the state has been in violent turmoil for two years. President’s rule has been imposed not in the interests of Manipur but to buy time to settle internal conflicts within the ruling coalition.”
