New Delhi: Workers of ten opposition parties clashed with police in Imphal while on their way to submit a memorandum to Manipur governor Anusuiya Uikey on Friday (October 13), the Ukhrul Times reported.
Its report added that there was no “major untoward incident” and that party workers were able to deliver their memorandum.
Signed by local representatives of parties including the Congress, All India Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Aam Aadmi Party, the memorandum says the state government has failed to adequately address some aspects of the ethnic crisis.
It says that the Manipur government must lift prohibitory measures in place in the state, expedite peace talks, increase relief packages and arrange for the handing over of the bodies of two Meitei students whose death was recently confirmed.
“Of late, we have come across various prohibitory measures by the state government to prevent the citizens from exercise of their fundamental rights like freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, constructive criticism of the government, etc,” the memorandum reads.
“A vibrant democracy, of which the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India proudly pronounce that India is the mother of democracy, requires free speech by individual and the press, criticism of the wrongdoing by the government to act as checks and balances on them, and freedom to peacefully assemble and move [sic],” it continues to say.
Mobile internet continues to be banned in Manipur. It was restored in September after a 143-day-long blackout but was shut down by the state government soon after.
The memorandum then says that there have been no meaningful peace talks in the state since ethnic violence erupted in early May.
“You will agree that both the Central and state governments have chosen the path of non-intervention to the crisis of clash between the ethnic groups. Rather, they are trying to sideline the main reasons behind the crisis by taking shelter to theory of conspiracy by outside militant organisation with intent to assault India,” it adds.
Memorandum submitted by the Ten Political Parties, Manipur, (AAP, AIFB ,AITG, CPI, CPI(M), INC, JD(U), NCP, RSP, & SS(UBT) to the Hon’ble Governor of Manipur today at Imphal. pic.twitter.com/ike1EHXKUc
— INC Manipur (@INCManipur) October 13, 2023
Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh has previously claimed that the state’s violence was not due to a “fight between communities” but instead because of resistance to the government’s policy of forest conservation and poppy clearing.
He has also tried to blame Kuki militants for the ethnic violence.
The Union government tried to start peace dialogues in June but its attempt failed when members from both the Meitei and Kuki communities refused to participate over disagreements regarding the composition of a peace talk committee.
The opposition parties also brought up the two dead Meitei students and asked that the state government arrange for their remains to reach their family members at the earliest.
Seventeen-year-old Luwangbi Linthoingambi Hijam and 20-year-old Phijam Hemanjit went missing in July and were confirmed dead by Manipur police earlier this month.
Photos of their bodies went viral in September and led to protests in the Meitei-majority Imphal valley.
The state government suspended mobile internet access soon after their photos went viral.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested four people in connection with Hijam and Hemajit’s deaths on October 1. It arrested a fifth person, 22-year-old Paolun Mang, from Pune on October 11.
The Indian Express reported that Mang was a “key suspect” in the deaths of the two students and that the CBI was granted his custody till Monday (October 16).
Over 200 people died and nearly 60,000 were displaced as a result of ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur since May 3.
Ethnic divisions have become extremely stark as a result, with the two communities having become almost completely segregated from each other.