Activists protesting ethnic violence and mob assault of women who were paraded naked in northeastern Manipur state hold placards in Mumbai (AP)

09 Aug 2023, 07:51 PM IST
Anwesha Mitra

Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/will-manipur-cm-n-biren-singh-be-replaced-amid-violent-clashes-amit-shah-says-a-non-cooperating-cm-11691586434859.html

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh is set to remain at his post amid growing calls for his dismissal. Home Minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the CM was ‘cooperating with the Centre’ and a change was not necessary at this time. Opposition leaders insist that the people of Manipur people have lost confidence in their CM and recently wondered why he was yet to be sacked. The remarks also come mere days after the Kuki People’s Alliance withdrew from the N Biren Singh government.

“A state CM needs to be changed when he is not cooperating. This CM is cooperating with the Centre…I want to appeal with folded hands to both Meitei and Kuki communities to shun violence and hold talks with government,” Shah told the Lok Sabha while addressing a no-confidence motion.

Manipur has been rocked by widespread ethnic clashes over the past three months with more than 150 people losing their lives. 

Opposition leaders however remained critical of the Manipur CM with the Congress claiming that there was a growing “mistrust” between the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre. 

“Is this the kind of cooperation being extended by Manipur CM (to the Centre) where arms have been looted from police stations? Home Department and the CM don’t have the courage to accept their mistake. 60,000 people are living in shelter camps, and they are saying that the CM is cooperating. Don’t want such kind of cooperation, PM should remove the CM on moral grounds,” opined Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi in the wake of Shah’s speech. 

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also cited the recent FIR filed by Manipur Police against Assam Rifles. Taking to Twitter the senior politician dubbed it a “breakdown of Constitutional machinery” and wondered when Prime Minister Narendra Modi would act on the matter. 

“This is the FIR filed by Manipur Police against Assam Rifles. The accompanying shrill rhetoric from the Manipur CM and those who surround him makes it clear that there’s growing mistrust between the BJP government in the State and the BJP government in the Centre?” he wrote.