HT Correspondent
DIMAPUR, June 12: Former Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee president and senior Congress leader K Therie accused Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh of being responsible for the Manipur violence.
In a statement, Therie alleged that Singh is responsible for the loss of nearly 100 lives and the suffering of tens of thousands of civilians for no fault of theirs.
Therie said the Manipur CM has lost command over Kukis and also lost command over and respect of all sensible citizens.
According to him, Singh’s continuation will only worsen the situation. Therie said the Manipur CM must be stopped from “conducting mayhem” in the state if one really wanted to bring a peaceful solution.
He said the Manipur people’s pain was “our pain” adding everyone is concerned and wanted restoration of peace.
Therie hoped that leaders and thinkers will sit across the table and realign the discrepancies, if any.
He also called for protection of each other’s interests, be it Meites, Kukis or Nagas, as all are inseparable neighbours.
“Although it may not be at the cost of inherent rights and future, it is also our responsibility to be positive to each other,” Therie said.
Maintaining that the investigation teams cannot resolve the political issues as they are meant to bring the criminals to book, Therie said it is the duty of political leaders to rise up together and put heads together to resolve the problem.
While welcoming the Naga MLAs of Manipur for coming forward with proposals for peace, Therie, however, said at a recent meeting with union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, they asked not to touch the hill areas in the event of arranging separate administration for the Kukis, which conveyed ‘no objection’ for creation of separate administration.
Claiming that implies disintegration of Manipur state, he said this is because as per the Constitution, there cannot be separate administration without UT or state.
Therie went on to say that the Naga MLAs’ message was silent about the demand for tribal status for the Meiteis. “It means the delegates approve the granting of Scheduled Tribe status to the Meiteis,” he said.
