Mokokchung, 10 May (MTNews): Stating that the recent ethnic clash between the majority Meitei community and the Kuki tribes lies squarely with the Chief Minister N Biren Singh, the Rising People’s Party (RPP), a political party in Nagaland, opined that Chief Minister N Biren Singh should resign.
According to the party, Singh’s credibility has been tarnished beyond repair and that no amount of peace-building can restore the sense of normalcy under his watch.
Citing an article from the Outlook dated 9 July, 2021 where Singh remarked, “All lands belong to the state government,” RPP said that the Manipur CM has shown that “he’s simply the Chief Minister of Imphal Valley.”
The RPP then called out the CM for dehumanizing the Kukis as poppy cultivators and drug warlords and for branding the Kukis wholesale as illegal immigrants.
“The poppy argument given by Biren Singh is fallacious given that poppy is also cultivated in Naga inhabited districts. The Nagas too are under the ATSUM banner, now spearheading against the inclusion of Meiteis in the ST list, and the Naga majority districts of Ukhrul, Senapati, Chandel, and Tamenlong participated in the ATSUM rally held on 3 May. And whereas only the Kukis were targeted,” the party stated.
Stating that ‘riots are chaotic’, the RPP asked, “how come the Kukis were so quickly identified by the mobs for surgical strike in a densely populated Imphal valley?”
“This riot was an anti-Kuki program,” the party alleged, stating that after the riots started on 3 May, the Chief Minister “did nothing, at least for the next 24 hours, when mobs in Imphal valley started targeting Kuki homes and Churches.”
“Rather, according to reports, the Manipur police commandos aided the mobs by doing nothing when the dwellings of the Kuki tribes were being burnt down. Not surprisingly, on 4 May, the DGP P Doungel IPS of Kuki ethnicity was relinquished of all authority and the overall operational command of the police force was handed over to ADGP Ashutosh Sinha IPS, also reporting to the Security Advisor, GoM, Kuldiep Singh. No reasons were given for scapegoating Mr. Doungel,” RPP continued.
The party, in this regard, opined that President’s Rule should be imposed in the state so that all those responsible for the atrocities can be booked and prosecuted.
Further, the RPP condemned the “Christian Kuki Vs Hindu Meitei narrative” of the riots and the propaganda fed by Hindi-speaking narrators that the Christians are slaughtering Hindus in the state.
“Nothing can be farther from the truth,” the party concluded.
