All-party Manipur meet: all efforts on Modi's instructions, says Shah; "eyewash," says Congress

The all-party meeting on 24 June convened by Union home minister Amit Shah, purportedly to discuss the way forward on bringing peace to violence-gripped Manipur, ended up becoming a platform to eulogise Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Amit Shah, of course, runs the home ministry — responsible for the maintenance of peace and internal security. However, he told the assembled leaders during the meeting that all peace efforts in the state were being made on the prime minister's express instructions.

BJP's Manipur in-charge Sambit Patra told reporters after the meeting that “there has not been a single day when [Shah] did not speak to Prime Minister Modi on the situation or the prime minister did not give instructions” — which left some wondering how far out of his depth the home minister must be.

Neither Shah nor Patra, however, explained why the PM remains silent on the violence instead of addressing either the press or the public himself, to share his concern about Manipur. Surely it would be some succour to the BJP-ruled state's citizens, especially those demonstrating in the capital itself over the last two months, had they not lost faith already?

Nearly 120 people have lost their lives and over 3,000 have been injured since ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3. More than 40,000 people have been displaced, rendered refugees in their own country.

The main Opposition party, the Indian National Congress, called the all-party meeting "meaningless" in the absence of the PM himself. The Congress also alleged that its representative Okram Ibobi Singh, the former chief minister of Manipur, was not given enough time to present the "pain and anguish of the people of Manipur" to the assembled party leaders and representatives.

The Congress has been demanding Modi's official statement on the issue for several weeks now, since before his US and UN sojourns.

Later, talking to reporters at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters, Ibobi Singh said, "I barely had 7–8 minutes to share my views. Manipur is my home state. I asked for [an] additional 5 minutes to express my opinions, but it was denied. This is unfortunate."

"As the principal Opposition party, our representative, the seniormost leader from Manipur, three-time[s] elected CM Okram Ibobi Singh, was not allowed to present his points representing the pain and anguish of the people of Manipur," Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh tweeted.

"He was the only leader from Manipur in the all-party meeting today, and it is an insult not only to the former CM and the Congress party, but the people of Manipur, that their representative was not allowed to fully put forth his point of view," Ramesh continued.

The Congress went on to share eight points on the subject, and concluded with calling for the immediate removal of the chief minister of Manipur, N. Biren Singh of the BJP, "without which no progress can (be) made towards peace and normalcy in Manipur".