From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: A preview of how stormy the coming Parliament’s Monsoon session is going to be was visible yesterday when opposition members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home walked out of a meeting after their demand to discuss the situation in Manipur was denied by the panel chief.
At the meeting to discuss prison reforms in states, TMC’s Derek O’Brien, Congress’ Digvijaya Singh and Pradip Bhattacharya submitted letters to panel chairman Brijlal, saying as committee members they cannot ignore the situation in Manipur, the sources said.
Earlier, too, O’Brien and Singh had written to Brijlal urging him to hold a meeting to discuss the situation in Manipur.
The chairperson had informed both MPs separately of the inability to hold meetings urgently on the Manipur situation, as three meetings on prison reforms have been scheduled for July.
While the total strength of the Standing Committee is 28, a total of seven members, including the chairman, attended the meeting.
Manipur has been facing its worst crisis since it was formed in 1972. Nearly 120 people have died and more than 3,000 injured in the ethnic violence in Manipur since May 3.
Though Manipur has a “Double Engine” government, spiral of ethnic violence is continuing with people suffering shortages and insecurity. It is noteworthy that barring Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who visited the state once for three days, none of the top leaders of either the government or the party have cared to visit the state to placate the situation.
What is indeed disgusting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained an intriguing silence on the issue as he has neither spoken nor commented on the situation on any of the social media platforms of which he is very fond, opposition leader said. It would have been befitting of the Prime Minister of the country to personally visit the state sending a message that he cares for the people, he said.
The opposition is going to raise the Manipur issue in the coming Monsoon session that is starting from July 20.
