India opposes EU Parliament’s discussion on Manipur

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, July 12

Having been unable to persuade Members of the European Parliament (MEP) from holding an urgent debate on the Manipur situation, India on Wednesday said the Manipur situation is “totally internal to India”.

Acknowledging efforts to persuade the MEPs not to hold the debate which will be on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said, “We made efforts to reach out to EU parliamentarians. The matter is totally internal to India.” The Foreign Secretary was asked to respond to a report that New Delhi had hired a lobbying firm Alber & Geiger which had issued a statement to the European Parliament.

“We are writing to draw your attention and share our views regarding the Urgency Resolution on India, the Situation in Manipur… the instability, unfortunately, has been ongoing for a long time. Currently, the Government of India is working incessantly in order to mitigate the conflict and restore peace,” reported the Imphal Times.

The motion “The Manipur matter’’ has been scheduled for discussion under the “Debates on cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the Rule of Law”. The groups range from the Left, European Socialists and Greens to regionalist parties, Conservatives and centre-right political and Christian groups, reported The Wire. It also speaks of human rights abuses, and cracking down on dissent, civil society and media.