10 Kuki-Zo MLAs to skip assembly session in protest | India News – Times of India
AIZAWL/IMPHAL: All 10 Kuki-Zo legislators of Manipur will boycott the special assembly session from Monday in protest against attacks on the community that have left scores dead or maimed and thousands homeless, BJP MLA Poulienlal Haokip said Friday. The session will be the first since the ethnic conflict erupted on May 3.
In a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah late Thursday, the group of 10 demanded an immediate dialogue for “political and administrative recognition of the ethnic separation that has been forced upon us by the majority community-dominated government of Manipur”.
Haokip told TOI “a geographic and demographic division” of the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities was the only way to restore normalcy given the way the conflict had gone.
Must discard mistrust to restore peace: CM Biren
No member of the Kuki-Zo community is in the Imphal valley, and there is no Meitei in the hill areas,” another of the 10 MLAs said. Besides Paolienlal, the group includes Nemcha Kipgen, Ngursanglur Sanate, Letpao Haokip, Letzamang Haokip, Vungjagin Valte and L M Khaute of BJP. The other Kuki-Zo MLAs are Haokholet Kipgen (Independent), and Kimneo Haokip Hangshing and Chinlungthang of the Kuki People’s Alliance (KPA).
On August 6, KPA withdrew support to the BJP-led government.
CM N Biren Singh said on Friday that “one must discard mistrust among different sections, communal feelings and selfishness” to focus on the immediate objective of restoring peace and normalcy after more than three months of turmoil.
“At this crucial juncture, there will be difference of opinion, but the general public must come together and work harder to make up for the lost three-four months,” he said. “Let bygones be bygones.”
A day earlier, the legislators had sent a memorandum to PM Modi seeking the creation of posts equivalent to that of chief secretary and DGP, among others, for the five hill districts with a significant population of Kuki-Zo people. They claimed that no government official of the community wanted to return to Imphal, which the memorandum refers to as the “valley of death”.
In a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah late Thursday, the group of 10 demanded an immediate dialogue for “political and administrative recognition of the ethnic separation that has been forced upon us by the majority community-dominated government of Manipur”.
Haokip told TOI “a geographic and demographic division” of the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities was the only way to restore normalcy given the way the conflict had gone.
Must discard mistrust to restore peace: CM Biren
No member of the Kuki-Zo community is in the Imphal valley, and there is no Meitei in the hill areas,” another of the 10 MLAs said. Besides Paolienlal, the group includes Nemcha Kipgen, Ngursanglur Sanate, Letpao Haokip, Letzamang Haokip, Vungjagin Valte and L M Khaute of BJP. The other Kuki-Zo MLAs are Haokholet Kipgen (Independent), and Kimneo Haokip Hangshing and Chinlungthang of the Kuki People’s Alliance (KPA).
On August 6, KPA withdrew support to the BJP-led government.
CM N Biren Singh said on Friday that “one must discard mistrust among different sections, communal feelings and selfishness” to focus on the immediate objective of restoring peace and normalcy after more than three months of turmoil.
“At this crucial juncture, there will be difference of opinion, but the general public must come together and work harder to make up for the lost three-four months,” he said. “Let bygones be bygones.”
A day earlier, the legislators had sent a memorandum to PM Modi seeking the creation of posts equivalent to that of chief secretary and DGP, among others, for the five hill districts with a significant population of Kuki-Zo people. They claimed that no government official of the community wanted to return to Imphal, which the memorandum refers to as the “valley of death”.
