Rajya Sabha passes statutory resolution confirming President’s rule in Manipur

Amit Shah in Rajya Sabha (file photo)

The Rajya Sabha early Friday adopted a Statutory Resolution confirming the imposition of President's rule in violence-hit Manipur, with support from members across party lines.

While opposition leaders criticized the Centre for failing to restore law and order, the government defended its actionsand said that its policy was not to impose President’s rule in states.

"A meeting between Meiteis and Kukis from Manipur is likely to take place in Delhi soon. Two meetings have already taken place," Union Home Minister Amit Shah said at the end of the discussion on the resolution.

"...We are investing our efforts to bring peace back in Manipur. Thirteen meetings have happened. We brought up the subject late as meetings were going on. The next meeting is in the offing and the issue will see its resolution soon," the minister said.

"The path to communication is open... We don't use this for political mileage," Shah added.

He accused the Congress and other parties of trying to spread misinformation as there was "zero violence" in Manipur.

The minister claimed that on February 11, the Manipur chief minister had resigned and as the news broke, the Congress brought a no-confidence against him even though it did not have the numbers.

"I want to set the record straight. There was no no-confidence motion against the Manipur government. The Congress did not have the required numbers. They were not in a position to bring a no-confidence motion and the chief minister of Manipur had resigned," Shah said.

He said after the resignation of former chief minister N Biren Singh, no other party, including the Congress which has five MLAs, staked claim and President's rule was imposed.

Though he admitted that 260 lives were lost in Manipur in the ethnic strife, he said the majority of people were killed in the first week of violence.

He said talks were on with both, Meitei and Kuki, communities for a peaceful solution.

Shah also attacked the opposition for "politicising" the violence and said similar incidents took place in the state during the Congress regime, when no prime minister visited the state Seven years ago, he said, a 225-day curfew was imposed in Manipur.

Even in those days of the Congress regime, no prime minister visited Manipur, he claimed.

Referring to his "Communist friends" objection to the prime minister not visiting the state, Shah said, "I don't understand what is the problem. Are they trying to safeguard Naxalism or violence in Manipur." Shah said they should be competent enough to differentiate between ethnic strife in Manipur and the problem of Naxalism.

These problems are not the same, they are different, he asserted.

The home minister accused the TMC of following "dual standards," claiming that 250 lives were lost in the post-poll violence in West Bengal alone and the state took no action in the Sandeshkhali and RG Kar Hospital incidents.

"We are not supporting any gender crime happening in Manipur. We will deal with that. You could not deal with what was happening in West Bengal," he said.

Shah said the northeast has a history of ethnic struggle, but the BJP never "politicised" it.

In 1993, he said, the Naga-Kuki strife broke out and continued till 1998, claiming 750 lives.

But, the then PM did not visit the region, he claimed.

Shah said such struggles take time to cool off and many a time five years have taken for normalcy to return.

Earlier, initiating the discussion on a statutory resolution on the imposition of President's rule in Manipur, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit strife-torn Manipur at the earliest to restore order.

Kharge said the Modi government failed to govern the northeastern state despite having a majority there. "For nearly two years, Manipur has been burning and the government has totally failed in stopping the violence," he said.

He alleged that the BJP's "double-engine" government promised stability, but instead, delivered "bloodshed, division, and economic collapse" to the state.

"I would urge the prime minister to visit Manipur, meet the affected people resolve their issues and set right the law and order situation there," he said.

The Congress leader also demanded a thorough inquiry into the violence in Manipur and also a white paper tabled in the Parliament on the matter.