New Delhi: Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla has defended his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the violence in Manipur over its state assembly passing three controversial bills, and said he wanted to help his people in the neighbouring state.
“I don’t want to antagonise anybody. I simply want to help my people in Manipur enjoy their rights within the Constitution of India,” Lal Thanhawla said in an interview that will be published in the forthcoming issue of the North East Sun magazine.
His remarks came after Manipur’s Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam said Lal Thanhawla, a fellow Congressman, should have consulted his party first before writing to the prime minister.
The Manipur unit of the Congress has also complained to the party high command.
Following a months-long agitation by people living in the valley districts of Manipur, the assembly on August 31 passed the Protection of Manipur People Bill, the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Bill (Seventh Amendment), and the Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill ostensibly to protect the rights of the indigenous people.
The day the bills were passed, protesters, mainly from tribal organisations, torched five houses belonging to Congress lawmakers. These included the houses of state Health and Family Welfare Minister Phungzathang Tonsing and Lok Sabha member from Outer Manipur Thangso Baite in Churachandpur district. Lal Thanhawla, in his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requested that the central government should “not give its consent to the three bills passed by the Manipur legislative assembly as they are directly against the tribal people of the state”.
Hoping that law and order would be restored soon, he said leaders of various political parties of Mizoram were visiting Manipur to help restore peace and normalcy in the troubled area.
“I was told that if the bills are passed as they are, many tribal people, those who have been living there for ages, would be deprived of their citizenship and their other rights,” he said.
“That is why, at the request of the people, I thought it was my duty to write to the prime minister to see that all citizens of the country, irrespective of their caste, creed or religion, should live in complete harmony.”
“I don’t want to play any blame game but my only concern is how to restore peace in the state and protect the rights of each citizen of the state. Now that the three bills have been passed, the Kukis and Mizos feel these are anti-tribal,” the Mizoram chief minister said.
He, however, said that though as a Mizo, he was concerned about his own people, “we don’t want to do anything against the Manipur government”. (IANS)
