The Mizo National Front on Thursday demanded the resignation of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh amid the ethnic conflict in the state.
The conflict had been “exacerbated by the catastrophic failure” of Singh’s government and needed “immediate and resolute” action, stated Mizoram’s main Opposition party. “The suffering inflicted upon our Zofate [ethnic Mizos] brethren due to ethnic conflict has reached intolerable levels.”
Mizos share strong ethnic ties with the Kuki community in Manipur and the Chin tribes in neighbouring Myanmar.
The Mizo National Front is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power in Manipur.
At least 258 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the clashes broke out between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zo-Hmars communities in May 2023.
On Thursday, the Mizo National Front stated that Singh’s inaction and “misuse of power” had worsened the situation, making his continuation in office “untenable and shameful”.
The Mizo National Front also called on the Union government to take urgent and decisive action to end the conflict.
“In a nation celebrated as the world’s largest democracy, the continued erosion of human rights and attacks on religious sanctuaries betray the foundational values of justice and secularism,” it said. “That an elected government would stand idle amidst such suffering is an affront to democracy and a global embarrassment.”
The Zoramthanga-led party said that the Zofate people should unite and “safeguard the lives and livelihoods of our people” and urged Mizoram’s Zoram People’s Movement government to “persist in its unwavering support for the displaced and to fulfil their promises with integrity and patriotism”.
Imphal criticises ‘constant meddling’ by MNF
Responding to the statement, the Manipur government said it strongly disapproved of the “constant meddling” in the internal affairs of the state by the Mizo National Front.
The Mizo National Front has consistently revealed “its true colours as an anti-national party” with its opposition to the Union government’s plans to fence the India-Myanmar border to curb undocumented migration, trafficking of arms and drugs, internal security and defence, the Manipur government said in a statement.
“Myanmar is the origin of most of the illegal immigration and drugs problems that Manipur has been facing,” claimed the state government.
The conflict in Manipur is a “creation of illegal immigrants from Myanmar, whose economy, after illegally settling in the state, driven by cultivation of illicit poppy, had taken a severe hit under Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s war on drugs”, the state government claimed.
“It is not on account of any religious policy of the state government, as has been falsely portrayed by the MNF and other vested interests … through fabricated narratives,” it added.
The Manipur government and the Union government have for long blamed the free movement of people from across the Myanmar border for the ethnic conflict.
Imphal on Thursday further cautioned against what it alleged was a “greater agenda of carving out a Kuki-Chin nation out of contiguous areas of Myanmar, India and Bangladesh”, adding that it will not allow “fragmentation of North East India” by foreign vested interests in Manipur or in its neighbourhood.
Also read: Interview: ‘In Manipur, rational voices on both sides are being silenced’
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