"Was It A Fault To Start War On Drugs...": Chief Minister On Manipur Crisis

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Friday launched a scathing attack on those who blamed the BJP for the ethnic strife in the state.

"Over the past six months, I kept asking myself what fault did we commit? Was it a serious error to launch a campaign to identify illegal immigrants who otherwise would have swallowed the indigenous people of the state?" Mr Singh told BJP workers at the party's headquarters in the state capital Imphal.

"Was it a fault to start a war on drugs to save the youth? Was it also a fault to have stopped the massive deforestation which destroyed the natural environment, and also led to emergence of new villages and widespread poppy cultivation?" Mr Singh said.

"My conscience is clear. I am not wrong. BJP is not wrong. The only fault of the BJP is to take up such initiatives to protect the indigenous people of the state," Mr Singh said.

"If these steps had not been taken up by the party and the government, imagine the situation of the state a decade later," the Chief Minister said. "The BJP will work for a united Manipur. There is no other party which can save the state's people," he added.

He explained the work done by the BJP for the welfare of people including implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) and removal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or AFSPA, from many valley areas in the state.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji and Home Minister Amit Shah ji have given approval to fence around 100 km of the Manipur section of the Indo-Myanmar border," Mr Singh said.

"Which party or government had launched a biometric campaign to identify illegal immigrants? The unrest we are seeing today is because of such campaigns being taken up," the Chief Minister said.

On the recent peace deal between the Centre and United National Liberation Front (UNLF), Mr Singh said, "The peace agreement was not an instant thing. It took three to four years to such an agreement."