Union home minister Amit Shah has assured a delegation led by Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh that the “unity and integrity” of the northeastern state would not be affected at any cost.
Singh disclosed this in Imphal on Monday, hours after his return from Delhi where the delegation met Shah on Sunday over the prevailing unrest. This is the first such meeting since widespread violence erupted in the state on May 3.
The violence has taken a heavy toll on life and property and an uneasy calm prevails in Manipur despite heavy deployment of the army and central paramilitary forces.
Asserting that the state’s territorial integrity cannot be compromised, Singh told reporters that Shah assured the delegation that restoring peace and normality was his “utmost priority” and that the “unity and integrity of the state would not be affected at any cost”.
Sources said Singh, summoned by Shah to take stock of the situation, left for Delhi on Sunday morning with four cabinet ministers and state BJP president A. Sharda Devi in a special flight and returned by night.
Shah also met a group of Kuki MLAs in Delhi on Monday afternoon, the details of which are not yet known.
Shah has also asked Singh to submit details on what can be done for the people affected by the violence besides their resettlement. At least 73 people have died in the violence and over 1,700 houses/structures were destroyed, affecting over 40,000.
Shah’s assurance assumes significance because 10 Kuki MLAs from the state had in a joint statement on Friday claimed that the violence was “perpetrated by majority Meiteis tacitly supported by the existing government of Manipur against the Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi hill tribals has already partitioned the state and effected a total separation from the state of Manipur”.
