21-member Opposition team on two-day visit to Manipur

The visit is aimed at mounting pressure on the government, which had been stonewalling Opposition demands for a suo motu statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Manipur situation.

The Opposition wanted to get a first hand account of the situation in Manipur, interacting with those affected and visiting the areas that were hit by the bloody ethnic violence before the discussion.

The delegation would visit the affected areas and people both in the valley and the hills. It would also visit two relief camps in both the places and assess the situation themselves, Congress MP and the party’s whip in Rajya Sabha Naseer Hussain said.

Sources said the Opposition bloc had written to Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who allowed the delegation to visit the state. The delegation would be meeting Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey on Sunday morning, Hussain said.

He said MPs have sought to use helicopters there and if allowed, they will be able to visit the far-flung areas of Churachandpur, where fresh violence has taken place.

“We have got permission from the state government to visit the affected areas and also the relief camps. We have also got permission to meet the Governor, who has allowed time to the delegation on Sunday,” Hussain told reporters.

The delegation will include Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and his party colleagues Gogoi, Kodikunnil Suresh and Phulo Devi Netam besides TMC’s Sushmita Dev, JMM’s Mahua Maji, DMK’s Kanimozhi, NCP’s Mohammad Faizal, Jayant Chaudhary of RLD, Manoj Kumar Jha of RJD, N K Premachandran of RSP and T Thirumavalavan of the VCK.

The other members of the delegation are JD(U) chief Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh and his party colleague Aneel Prasad Hegde, CPI’s Sandosh Kumar, CPI(M)’s A A Rahim, Samajwadi Party’s Javed Ali Khan, IUML’s E T Mohammed Basheer, AAP’s Sushil Gupta, Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-Uddhav Thackeray), D Ravikumar (DMK).

Dev said the Opposition delegation wants to give the message that “we are with the people of Manipur”. “We are concerned, we want peace to return… the government has failed, so we want to go there and see what solution can be found,” she said. DMK leader T R Baalu said the Opposition delegation will be leaving for Manipur Saturday morning and will find out what went wrong, the extent of damage and loss of lives and property.