On June 24, the Union Home Minister called a meeting of all parties to examine the Manipur situation. Rahul Gandhi, a senior member of the Congress, criticised the BJP-led national government on Thursday for holding an all-party meeting to discuss the Manipur problem when the Prime Minister won’t be in the country. “Manipur has been burning for 50 days, but the Prime Minister remained silent. An all-party meeting was called when the Prime Minister himself was not in the country! Clearly, this meeting is not important for the Prime Minister,” Rahul tweeted.
On June 24, the Union Home Minister called a meeting of all parties to examine the Manipur situation. On June 23, the Prime Minister will wrap up a three-day trip to the US before departing on a two-day trip to Egypt. The Congress parliamentary party president Sonia Gandhi claimed that the violence had left a “deep wound” on the conscience of the country. The opposition has accused Prime Minister Modi for being silent on the racial riots in Manipur.
Mamata Bannerjee stated that the Center’s outreach was too late and too insufficient in response to the developments. “It’s too late now…I got a reply yesterday, after the all-party meeting was called. I will be sending Derek O’Brien to that meeting,” she said. Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, visited Manipur for four days starting on May 29 and interacted with the Kuki and Meitei groups while there. On June 10, he had also declared the creation of a peace commission, which would be led by Governor Anusuiya Uikey.
Over 100 people have already died and numerous others have been injured as a result of the violence. The residential quarters of elected ministers, including several BJP leaders, have been attacked by mobs due to the widening ethnic fault lines. Following a quarrel between the Meitei and Kuki tribes, the initial fighting broke out from May 3 to May 5. Since then, stories of violence have persisted in surfacing in different Manipur districts.
