All Opposition MLAs of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, including former Chief Minister of Manipur Okram Ibobi, walked out from the ongoing session on Friday and boycotted the remaining sittings after their appeal to take a unanimous decision in the House to seek an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was rejected.
The ongoing 6th session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly began on July 31 and is scheduled to conclude on August 12.
Since the Manipur violence erupted on May 3 last year, the people of the state have been demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi be approached to help solve the crisis in Manipur.
Raising the same demand, opposition MLAs from the Congress party further appealed to the ruling parties to take a unanimous decision in the House to seek an appointment with the PM to resolve the crisis in Manipur.
On Thursday, during the sitting of the 6th session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly, opposition MLA Th Lokeswar urged Chief Minister N Biren Singh, through the assembly floor, to reach a unanimous decision to seek an appointment with the PM. He also informed the House that all the MLAs of Manipur would approach the PM together to solve the crisis.
Lokeswar also urged the House to convene a ‘secret session’ so that each member could give their respective comments to solve the Manipur crisis and to restore peace.
With the same demand, five opposition MLAs, including former Chief Minister of Manipur Okram Ibobi, former Speaker Th Lokeswar, and president of Manipur PCC K Meghachandra, K Ranjit, and Surjakumar Okram, submitted notices for private members’ resolutions to the Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly on August 2. However, the notice was rejected by the Speaker, which was to be discussed on Friday’s sitting.
The notice mentioned “To resolve a unanimous decision of all the members of the Manipur Legislative Assembly that the Prime Minister of India should have a thorough discussion with the Members of the Manipur Legislative Assembly on the matter of the endless and perpetual crisis in the state of Manipur, to bring peace, normalcy, harmony, and safety for the people of Manipur, who are citizens of the country.”
After the five opposition MLAs walked out from the Manipur Legislative Assembly, CLP leader O Ibobi told the media outside the assembly campus that opposition MLAs have been demanding a unanimous decision to seek an appointment with the PM to solve the Manipur crisis.
As the ruling party failed to heed the proposal, the five opposition MLAs submitted a notice as a private members’ resolution to take a unanimous decision in the House. However, the Speaker rejected the notice.
“So, it is not necessary to continue the session,” Ibobi said, “and the opposition MLAs walked out from the session. Moreover, the opposition will also boycott the remaining session.”
K Ranjit said the opposition MLAs have been urging the House to reserve two-three sittings only to discuss the ongoing crisis and to solve the issue. But he claimed that the present government is ignoring all the approaches of opposition MLAs just like the Biren-led government does not care about the lives of the public.
He alleged that after the different narratives received from the Biren-led government, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also giving different narratives on the cause of the Manipur crisis. Earlier, the Union Home Minister said Manipur violence is due to ‘external aggression,’ and later he said it is a communal clash and should be solved by initiating talks between Meitei and Kuki.
With the failure of the Biren-led government to convince PM Modi, the PM himself narrated that people residing in Manipur are ‘violent people,’ he alleged.
“I have never seen such a leader who considers democracy as a mockery and fails to protect the dignity of the assembly,” MLA Ranjit said.
“During the tenure of CM Biren, the over 2,000-year-old unique history safeguarded by our forefathers is going to doom,” Ranjit claimed.
He further alleged that the present government does not care about the lives and property of the people; they only think that they will buy their votes at the time of the election.
Lokeswar said rejecting the proposal of opposition MLAs to discuss the ongoing issue by dedicating some days of the ongoing sitting showed that the present government does not want to end the crisis and restore peace in Manipur.
