Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday slammed the Modi government over its handling of the situation in violence-hit Manipur, saying the central government has “switched off the engine of constitutional responsibility and thrown away the key.”
His attack came a day after the Supreme Court observed that there is a complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in Manipur.
The top court rapped the state police for a tardy and lethargic probe into incidents of ethnic violence, especially those targeting women, and summoned the DGP to answer its queries on August 7.
In a tweet, Chidambaram said, “How long will it take for the Supreme Court’s indictment of the Manipur Government to reach PMO in Delhi and CMO in Imphal?”
“If the chief minister of Manipur, Mr Biren Singh, has any sense of constitutional morality, he should quit immediately. Only those who practise raj dharma can preach raj dharma,” the former home minister said.
Chidambaram also alleged that the central government is like the driver of the police jeep who told the molested women “there is no key.”
“The central government has switched off the engine of Constitutional responsibility (Articles 355 & 356) and thrown away the key,” Chidambaram said.
While Article 355 deals with the duty of the Union to protect every state against external aggression and internal disturbance, Article 356 is about the imposition of the President’s rule.
Excoriating the law enforcement machinery over unbridled ethnic violence, the Supreme Court has said the state police have completely lost control over the law and order situation and sought details from the state government in a tabulated format segregating cases involving murder, rape, arson and loot, destruction of house and property, places of worship, and outraging of modesty of women.
More than 160 people have lost their lives and several hundreds have been injured since ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals — Nagas and Kukis — constitute little over 40 per cent and reside in the hill districts.
