NEW DELHI: With the economic blockade in Manipur still continuing, BJP on Friday demanded dismissal of the Congress-led Ibobi Singh government and said an all-party delegation be sent to the state to talk to the locals and suggest measures to deal with the issues.
A BJP delegation comprising party MPs Yashwant Sinha and Prakash Javadekar had visited Manipur earlier this week to get first-hand information about the difficulties being faced by the people due to the economic blockade which has lasted over a 100 days.
“There is a failed government in Manipur which is not doing anything to ameliorate the sufferings of the people there. The grim realities there, which are mere stories for us here, are that prices of essential commodities have sky-rocketed,” Sinha told reporters here.
He alleged that the Ibobi Singh government supports 30 “underground forces” there.
“The Ibobi Singh government should be immediately dismissed and President’s Rule should be imposed in the state. The Government of India should take immediate control. The Centre should act decisively,” Sinha said.
A BJP delegation led by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley and party president Nitin Gadkari had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sometime back and demanded action.
“The delegation had demanded that an all-party delegation be sent to Manipur as was done in the case of Kashmir. This delegation should be sent immediately. It should spend at least two days there and return before Parliament session begins on November 22 and tell the government what should be done,” Sinha said.
Some of the people with whom Sinha and Javadekar interacted with in Manipur suggested that there should be a highway protection force maintained by the Centre which could intervene whenever there was any obstruction on the highways.
Welcoming this suggestion, Sinha said while the government mulls over this, it could deploy in Manipur a “number of paramilitary forces” at its command. “Our indifference towards the state must end. Manipur is an urgent national issue today and should be dealt with as an over-riding national priority,” Sinha said.
BJP, he said, will raise this issue in the forthcoming Winter Session of Parliament. “The sufferings of the people of Manipur are unthinkable. It is not only that those essential commodities are not available and people have to shell out a fortune for purchasing them. To access these commodities, people have to surrender to the black market,” Sinha said.
The BJP leader alleged that this state of affairs shows the “callous attitude and total insensitivity” of the government.
“The people of Manipur are angry against this inaction and are asking a straight forward question as to whether the Centre considers Manipur as a part of India or not?” Sinha said. Elections are due in Manipur early next year.
At the AICC briefing, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari trashed BJP’s remarks.
“BJP never remembered Manipur before,” he said, adding that the Opposition party is talking about the state only because it is going to polls next year. (PTI)