Current crisis in Manipur due to past Congress governments: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said the current ethnic clashes in Manipur were due to past Congress governments.
As the Opposition continues to corner the central government on the Manipur issue in the Monsoon session of Parliament, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma held the past Congress governments responsible for the ethnic clashes in the hill state.
Accusing it of ruling by “spreading communal disharmony”, Himanta said clashes in Manipur were by and large due to the Congress party, which had been ruling the country with “vested interest.”
“The Congress today brought a no-confidence motion in Parliament citing the ongoing violence in Manipur. Data suggests that 300 people in 1990 and 105 people in 2006 were killed in Manipur under Congress rule,” said the Assam chief minister.
He said due to the wrong policies of the Congress dispensation, various disputes in the northeastern states remained unsolved.
“The party has brought division among different communities of the region. Today Manipur is burning, and the Congress is solely responsible for it”, Sarma said.
Countering Congress’s claim that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Assam’s Kokrajhar district during the 2008 ethnic clashes, Himanta said, “He never visited the state during that period”.
“Whether Nagaland or Manipur, the Congress has the record of fuelling widespread violence leading to “bloodshed”. When Indira Gandhi visited Assam during the 1962 Indo-China war, Jawaharlal Nehru had warned her not to visit the state fearing that she might get kidnapped by the Chinese army”, Sarma claimed.
Himanta's statement came after Congress's MP Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday said the opposition bloc INDIA was forced to bring the no-confidence motion against the government to break Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "vow of silence" on Manipur.
MANIPUR VIOLENCE
Ethnic violence broke out in the northeastern state nearly four months ago, killing over 160 people since then, and injuring hundreds. The violence erupted on May 3 after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Tension mounted in the hill state after a May 4 video surfaced, showing two women from one of the warring communities in the northeastern state being paraded naked by a mob from the other side.
