"No Trust-Building": NDA Ally Tears Into Biren Singh Over Manipur Violence

A day after withdrawing support to the BJP government in Manipur over the recent incidents of violence, National People's Party (NPP) president and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma hit out at his Manipur counterpart N Biren Singh. Mr Sangma clarified that NPP had withdrawn support to the Biren Singh-led government and not to the NDA. He added that the party may rethink the decision if there is a leadership change in the neighbouring state.

In the 60-member Manipur Assembly, BJP holds 37 seats. The NPP, which has seven MLAs, had earlier given outside support to the Biren Singh government as it is part of the NDA. Its withdrawal of support does not endanger the government, but is more of a statement regarding the situation in Manipur. NPP has criticised the Manipur Chief Minister in the past too.

In a statement issued today, Mr Sangma has said that the NPP had hoped that the situation in Manipur would improve and had continued to back the state government.

"In the last one week, the situation has gone bad. We had been discussing the situation with central BJP leaders. We have suggested that trust needs to be built, that it is because of trust deficit that overall efforts to bring peace are not reaching their logical conclusion. No trust-building efforts were undertaken," he said.

"We strongly felt that there is no confidence of our party in the current leadership of Biren Singh ji. Violence is not way to bring about a solution, but sentiments are (running) high. We urge the Centre to take a serious note of what is happening in Manipur now," the NPP chief added.

Mr Sangma assured that as the second largest party in Manipur Assembly, NPP would cooperate to bring peace back. "We have withdrawn the support from the Biren Singh-led government, not from NDA. If there is a leadership change and positive impact of that change, we might think of supporting again," he said.

The NPP yesterday said that the Biren Singh government had "completely failed to resolve the crisis and restore normalcy". In a letter addressed to BJP chief and Union Minister JP Nadda, it said, "Keeping the current situation in mind, the National People's Party has decided to withdraw its support to the Biren Singh government in state of Manipur, with immediate effect," the letter said. 

At least 19 people have been killed in the recent spate of violence in Manipur's Jiribam district this month. Curfew has been imposed in several areas of the state, where ethnic clashes erupted last year. The Union Home Ministry has said all forces deployed in the state have been asked to take necessary steps to restore peace.