Opposition walks out of meet over Manipur

New Delhi, July 6

Opposition members today walked out of a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs after panel chairman and BJP RS member Brijlal rejected their demand to discuss the situation in Manipur.

As the meeting was called to discuss prison reforms in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, TMC’s Derek O’Brien, and Congress’ Digvijaya Singh and Pradip Bhattacharya submitted a joint letter to the panel chairman, saying as committee members they could not ignore the situation in Manipur, sources said.

The letter said as members of the parliamentary panel, it was their moral and constitutional responsibility to discuss the matter with utmost urgency and the required sincerity.

“Having been a senior police officer yourself, you understand the gravity of the situation in the state. Manipur needs healing and an end to the violence. We as elected representatives cannot look away,” the leaders said in the letter.

They further said some of them had written to the Chairman last month requesting an urgent meeting of the committee to discuss Manipur, a demand which was not accepted.

“You also informed us that this issue will not be taken up for discussion any time in July. Sir, it is your prerogative to fix the agenda of the meeting. We stand against such an evasion of responsibility to discuss an issue of national importance, and are therefore choosing to walk out of the meeting,” they said.

The sources said the three are unlikely to attend the two other meetings that are scheduled this month. Before leaving, the protesting members also urged BJP MP Biplab Deb to walk out with them since he was from the Northeast, they said.

On an earlier occasion too, O’Brien and Singh had written to Brijlal urging him to hold a meeting to discuss the situation in Manipur. But the chairperson had informed them separately about the inability to hold meetings urgently on the Manipur situation, as three meetings on prison reforms have been scheduled for July. However, a total of seven members, including the chairman, attended and deliberated on the agenda in the meeting.

SC rejects plea on Internet shutdown

The Supreme Court refused to entertain a petition filed by two Manipur residents challenging repeated Internet shutdowns in the state, saying the state High Court was already dealing with the matter.

Woman shot in Imphal

Unidentified gunmen on Thursday shot dead a woman near a school in Imphal West district of Manipur, a day after classes began after two months of closure due to continuing ethnic clashes, officials said.