Congress flags absence of full-time Guv in Manipur

The Congress on Monday flagged the absence of a full-time Governor in Manipur as yet another instance of Centre’s ‘apathy’ to resolve the ethnic violence going on in the state for more than a year now with disastrous consequences for both sides of the divide.

Jairam Ramesh, Congress party general secretary in-charge of communications, said Manipur should first get a full-time Governor before a decision was taken whether the state was a fit case for the imposition of President’s Rule. He further said Amit Shah must resign from the post of Union Home Minister for failing to control the situation in Manipur.

In July, following the incumbent Governor Anusuiya Uikey’s unceremonious removal from the post 19 months after her appointment, Lakshman Acharya, Governor of Assam, was given the additional charge of Manipur. It has been like this ever since.

In Manipur, CM of the elected government does not control the state’s law and order machinery. In June last year, following a visit by Shah to Manipur, the inter-agency Unified Command was set up by the Home Ministry under former CRPF DG Kuldiep Singh to maintain security situation emanating from the Kuki vs Meitei clashes. Following the use of long range rockets by Kuki militants targeting Meitei habitations in Manipur, Biren Singh recently met the Governor with BJP’s other Meitei MLAs and threatened to resign if the control of the Unified Command was not handed over to him.

However, any such move would be deeply resented by the Kukis, who have no faith in the neutrality of Biren Singh. “Biren Singh cannot be trusted to take charge of the Unified Command. He will kill all who opposed him, including the Kukis,” Onkhopao Haokip, a Kuki activist, whose number was shared with this reporter by Churachandpur-based Kuki Student Organisation president Lemington Haokip, said.