NEW DELHI: Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh on Wednesday said only the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could save the state entangled in ethnic violence as it believed in the “idea of living together”.
“Only BJP can save Manipur…BJP leaders have a high sense of nationalism and social justice. They do reality-based politics in the interests of the nation….if I am not given a ticket by the BJP, I will remain with the party,” Singh was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
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Speaking at the Good Governance Day programme at the state BJP headquarters in Manipur, Singh said the hill state needs immediate peace and urged the two communities (the Kukis and Meities) to reach an understanding.
More than 250 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups in Manipur since May last year.
“What is happening in Manipur today has many reasons. Today, those who have been trying to divide the state are asking what the government is doing…they are hungry for power,” Singh said.
The Manipur CM also highlighted several measures like ‘Meeyamgi Numit’ (People’s Day) being adopted to bridge the distance between people and officials.
“We are not against any particular community. The stand of the BJP is clear. We believe in the idea of living together. We have already started to build relations between the police and the people,” he said.
Measures for internally displaced people
Biren Singh also said that his government was working hard to meet the requirements of internally displaced people. He said the state government has set up committees at several layers and claimed that the administration was facilitating immediate solutions for the displaced people in education and agriculture.
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“We have never committed any wrong. We only wanted to save future generations. The two communities need to be calm. Instead of looking at the past, we need to focus on the upcoming NRC process, capturing biometrics and 1961 as the base year of the Inner Line Permit. We will continue our work democratically and constitutionally. This will take time. What we need now is immediate peace and reach an understanding between the two communities which have misunderstood each other,” Singh said.
Biren Singh also mentioned a few unity-themed projects of the BJP government, and said, “The Unity Mall will include stalls of all the ethnics of the state and will be built at the cost of more than Rs 140 crores”.