Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party in India, in order to meet those displaced by ethnic violence recently arrived on a two-day visit to violence-hit regions in Manipur. This visit is a part of the ‘healing touch’ campaign by the Congress Party.
Rahul visits relief camps
The party has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration of being utterly ineffective in resolving the crisis in Manipur, which has resulted in more than 100 fatalities and thousands of displaced residents since clashes between the Kuki ethnic group, which is primarily concentrated in Manipur’s hills, and the Meitei people, who are the dominant group in the lowlands, broke out in early May.
Clashes broke out after the state’s main ethnic group, the Meiteis, demanded tribal status which gives access to benefits such as forest land and government job and education quotas.
Rahul immediately travelled 63 km to Churachandpur after landing at Imphal International Airport. A heated argument occurred when a large police team commanded by DSP Heishnam Balaram stopped him in front of the Bishnupur police station.
Local Congress officials, including former CM Ibobi Singh, tried their best to convince the police to let them go, but they were rejected due to protests that were in the area. Rahul then went back to Imphal, took a chopper to Churachandpur, and went to see the Kuki refugees living in the relief camps there. He was not accompanied by any of the Meitei Congress leaders out of concern that the said move might attract a Kuki attack.
Describing it as “unacceptable” Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of the Congress party, claimed that the administration was “using autocratic methods to stall a compassionate outreach by Rahul Gandhi”.
The All-Manipur Students Union, meanwhile, issued a statement on Thursday denouncing the state’s previous administrations and asserting that the Congress Party has played an important role in the current communal unrest in Manipur.
SC to hear the matter on July 3
On July 3, the Supreme Court is slated to hear a petition from an NGO asking for Army protection for the marginalised Kuki tribal people in Manipur and the prosecution of the communal organisations that have been assaulting them.
The plea submitted by NGO “Manipur Tribal Forum” will be heard by a bench consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra. A vacation bench presided over by Justice Surya Kant had turned down an urgent hearing on the plea on June 20 since it was a matter of law and order that the government should handle.
Despite serious promises that no one would die, senior attorney Colin Gonsalves, who was representing the NGO, said that 70 tribe members had been slain in acts of ethnic violence throughout the state. In opposition to the request for an early hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said security agencies were working hard to stop the violence and get things back to normal on the ground.
He had argued that the top court had slated July 17 for hearing on the main case involving the Manipur High Court’s decision to give Scheduled Tribe status to the dominant Meitei group, which sparked a wave of violence in the northeastern state. The appeal of the NGO was subsequently scheduled for hearing on July 3 by the vacation bench.
