New Delhi: Pointing out the BJP government’s failure to contain the ethnic violence in Manipur, Lok Sabha MP C. Lalrosanga of NDA ally Mizoram National Front (MNF) has said either Chief Minister Biren Singh should resign or the state be put under the President’s rule.
The MNF is the ruling party in Mizoram, with Zoramthanga serving as the chief minister. It is also a part of the BJP-led North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA). In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, MNF’s C. Lalrosanga won the only parliamentary seat in Mizoram.
Lalrosanga had recently attended the NDA meet held in Delhi on behalf of his party, but claims he was ‘indirectly’ told not to discuss the issue of Manipur and Universal Civil Code (UCC).
“No.. not at all.. I was not asked to speak in the first place. I was told indirectly that I should not speak on Manipur and UCC. That was the reason I decided not to speak if at all invited,” he told ThePrint Monday.
The Lok Sabha MP said that had Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoken on the issue much earlier, the situation could have been better.
“The PM should have spoken much much earlier. Not just on that particular video only of the two naked girls being paraded mercilessly. Not only on that but other issues as well.. Connected issues. The cause of the problem, the root cause of the problem. He should have spoken out much earlier like he did for so many unfortunate incidents in the country where he always used to come out first and speak in sympathy with the people. I think at least to some extent the situation would have been better (had he spoken earlier),” he said.
Biren Singh failed to contain the violence in the state, Lalrosanga said. “As far as I can see Manipur is in a bad shape, the situation is getting out of control. It has not been in control in fact right from when the violence broke out. So the situation is quite bad. Though it is made out to be peaceful, it is certainly not peaceful at all. And, therefore, I believe that very stern action has to be taken. Some drastic measures have to be taken to get the situation under control,” he said.
“At present, I am an alliance partner of the BJP (NDA), that’s a fact. But the thing is that the particular state government in Manipur, even though it is a BJP government, I feel has failed to control the situation. They have not been able to contain the situation, and they have not been able to give any solution. So the state government I believe has to go. Either the state should be put under the President’s rule, or the chief minister should go,” he said.
The MNF parliamentarian said the Manipur issue is likely to have a bearing on their alliance with the BJP though he pointed out that a final decision rests with his party. “The Manipur issue is likely to have a bearing definitely (on the alliance). Because the party that is in power is the BJP government. My people there in my constituency, their sentiments are with the tribals. Therefore, they feel that there was a lot of injustice.. And, therefore, we can’t side with injustice. and we can, perhaps, no longer continue to be in NDA. Of course, that’s for my party leadership to decide but I do feel like that. By and large that is the public sentiment,” he said.
Proceedings in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been disrupted following protests by opposition members demanding a statement from Modi on the ethnic violence in Manipur.
Lalrosanga said he has been trying to raise the issue in Parliament but to no avail. “Right from the very beginning even before the Parliament session started, in the pre-session meetings that we had (all-party meeting), I had said these matters definitely be raised on the floor of the House and I should also be allowed to speak as an MP from an adjoining state who is very much concerned because of the immediacy and the ethnicity involved in it. I said I should be allowed to speak. So far, no opportunity,” he said.
“I did submit an adjournment motion but it has not come up so far.”
Ethnic clashes between Manipur’s tribal Kuki and non-tribal Meitei communities erupted following a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ taken out 3 May to oppose the demand for inclusion of Meiteis in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category. According to police data, the violence has so far claimed over 157 lives and displaced more than 50,000.
Lalrosanga said that the Manipur violence could impact Mizoram, especially ahead of the election scheduled later this year in the state.
“I am very apprehensive about things spilling over to my state. Mizoram is a very peaceful state as you know, and so we would like to preserve the peace there in my state. But we are apprehensive that things might just spillover from Manipur… The turmoil may spill over so I am advising all concerned as far as they can that please see that Mizoram is kept intact and that we can still continue to be a haven of peace for those who seek shelter whether it is from Myanmar, or Bangladesh, or Manipur, as we are doing now,” he asserted.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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