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Manipur : AICC nod to integration of Naga areas creates wedge among states |
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The Congress and the CPI, partners in the Secular Progres¬sive Front (SPF) ministry in Manipur, have reacted strongly to the contents of the Nagaland PCC’s election manifesto released on Feb. 8 in the presence of AICC secretary Siddarth Patil.
The manifesto states that the Congress will continue to remind Delhi about the need to implement the 16-point statehood agreement, including the controversial clause on integration of all contiguous Naga-inhabited areas.
The Ibobi Singh government, as expected, tonight demanded that the AICC withdraw its endorsement of the 16-point statehood agreement with Nagaland and also drop the same from the Congress poll manifesto.
Sources said Ibobi Singh called up a few AICC leaders soon after a meeting on Feb. 9 with his council of ministers where it was decided that a formal protest be lodged with the AICC.
The Manipur unit of the Congress and the CPI had earlier said the promise was a “political gimmick”.
“The SPF government and its constituent units have not changed their stand on protection of Manipur’s territorial inte¬grity. We will not allow anybody to divide the state,” Congress leader and Irrigation and Flood Control Minister N. Biren Singh said.
The state secretary of the CPI, B. Sharma, said the Con¬gress, heading the UPA coalition at the Centre, would not make a farce of the Common Minimum Programme that includes protection of the boundaries of the north-eastern states.
Chief Minister still struggling for survival
Meanwhile, the fate of Chief Minister Ibobi Singh continues to be hanged in balance, he has submitted a list of 22 out of 31 Congress MLAs in the state Assembly supporting him.
Ibobi Singh has been under intense pressure from within to resign as Chief Minister since November last year after at least 14 MLAs claiming majority support of 20 MLAs, including the party chief Gaikhangam, had been camping in New Delhi to oust him.
The MLAs had been persuaded by the AICC general secretary Prithibiraj Chauhan to return to the state capital Imphal to participate in the first State Assembly of the year that began 1 February. Chauhan and other AICC leaders including the advisor to AICC president Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel. had apparently promised the dissident MLAs that the case would be taken up after 5 February, after which the session would be adjourned till 20 February.
With the first assembly session now adjourned the Chief Minister, MPCC president and host of other dissident MLAs are back in the capital and the tug of war has once again resumed.
The change in the script now is that the chief minister has not only the projected leader of the dissident group, his Reve¬nue Minister Th Devendra, but claims to have signature of anoth¬er four MLAs who have changed side in the past two weeks.
The rebel MLAs are still in a never-say-die mood saying they would prevail upon the AICC to change the leader to any MLA it deems fit but not Ibobi Singh. They said they were in New Delhi following the joint assurance of Chauhan, Union Minister AK Anthony and Ahmed Patel that the CM would be changed before the full budget session begins on 20 February. “If the AICC do not keep its promise things might become ugly during the full budget session,” a dissident MLA under anonymity warned.
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