Writing on wall but is HM reading it: Cong's dig over MLAs 'skipping' Manipur NDA meet

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday took a swipe at the BJP over some MLAs of the ruling NDA skipping a meeting called by Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, saying the writing on the wall is clear and asked whether Home Minister Amit Shah is reading it.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh also asked how long will the “excruciating agony” of the people of Manipur continue like this.

Noting that the Manipur Assembly has 60 MLAs, Ramesh said that on Monday night, the CM of Manipur called a meeting in Imphal of all MLAs belonging to the NDA.

“Other than him, only 26 showed up. Of these 26, 4 belong to the NPP whose National President has already written to the BJP National President withdrawing support to the present CM,” he said.

“The writing on the wall is clear. But is the grand sutradhar of Manipur – the Union Home Minister, to whom the PM has abdicated and outsourced all responsibility for the state – reading it?” Ramesh said in his post on X.

His remarks come a day after a meeting of MLAs of the ruling BJP-led NDA in Manipur adopted a resolution calling for a “mass operation” against the Kuki militants responsible for killing three women and three children in Jiribam district within seven days.

The meeting, held on Monday night, was attended by 27 MLAs.

Seven MLAs were absent from the meeting with formal information on medical grounds, while notice was received from 11 MLAs for their absence without reasons, a statement said.

Amid a spike in violence in Manipur, the Congress on Monday had asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the troubled state before the Parliament session this month and demanded Shah’s resignation for the “double engine government’s complete failure” there.

Ramesh had said Modi must first meet an all-party delegation from Manipur and then also call an all-party meeting at the national level ahead of the Parliament session starting November 25.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here along with Manipur Congress chief K Meghachandra Singh and AICC in-charge of state Girish Chodankar, Ramesh had demanded that Shah and Chief Minister N Biren Singh must resign.

“From May 3, 2023, Manipur is burning and Prime Minister Modi visits various countries of the world, gives sermons, but could not find time to visit Manipur. So, our first demand is that the PM should take time out before the Parliament session to visit Manipur and meet political parties, politicians, civil society groups, and people in relief camps there,” Ramesh had said.

Violence has continued to rock the state as offices of the Congress and the BJP have been ransacked in the hill district of Jiribam where an unidentified body was found earlier.

The incidents occurred after irate mobs set fire to the residences of three BJP legislators, one of whom is a senior minister, and a Congress MLA in various districts of Imphal Valley where an indefinite curfew has been clamped.

Security forces also foiled the attempt of the agitators to storm the ancestral residence of the Manipur chief minister on Saturday evening.

The Congress has been attacking the prime minister for not visiting Manipur, besides slamming the Centre for its handling of the situation in the ethnic strife-torn northeastern state.

More than 220 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.