‘Centre has a sight of things in Manipur but no vision … Budget could have been healing touch’: TMC MP Sushmita Dev | Political Pulse News

Excerpts:

Why did you and your party colleagues walk out of the House?

The Finance Minister’s answer was an eyewash. The Manipur Budget was run-of-the-mill and did not reflect the economy of the state, a crisis perpetuated by 22 months of violence and blockades. It was very disappointing for all of us in the Opposition. The Budget could have been a healing touch for Manipur but turned out to be ordinary.

Manipur is under President’s Rule and efforts are being made to bring warring sides (Meiteis and Kuki-Zos) to the negotiating table. What do you think the government must do?

President’s Rule is imposed under two or three circumstances. The first scenario is when the government does not have the numbers after an election or due to a no-confidence motion and a leader cannot be elected. The second situation is when the state faces a very serious law-and-order situation, where the state government is unable to function and control the situation.

It is clear to me that despite 22 months of mayhem, President’s Rule was imposed only last month. This shows that an internal crisis within the BJP and their fear of being exposed about the actual cause of the violence forced them to impose President’s Rule.

What did the Governor as well as the Union Home Minister (Amit Shah), do till now? They are now asking for weapons to be surrendered. Could this not have been done before? Similarly, could the Chief Minister (former CM N Biren Singh) not have resigned before? All these things were within their power for the last 22 months but they did not do anything. I am saying this as the BJP now can do nothing to unite the people of Manipur.

So, what is the solution?

The only way Manipur can emerge from the crisis is by having a new government with a proper mandate. There is a famous saying that goes, ‘You may have a sight of things but not the vision.’ Manipur is an example of that. The Centre has a sight of things but no vision for Manipur. It is clear from how it has handled things so far.

Nagpur has been rocked by violence over a demand to remove Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. What is your take on the issue?

I believe these are tactics to distract people from real issues and polarise the nation. You can be any group but why are they not seeking solutions for real problems such as unemployment and price rise? They want to focus on this because they feel they can get votes from it. Every time such an issue comes up, it only leads to polarisation and nothing else.

The Election Commission (EC) held a meeting with the Union Home Secretary, Legislative Secretary (in the Union Law Ministry), MeitY Secretary, and the CEO of the UIDAI on the Aadhaar-voter card seeding. The TMC has been raising the issue of duplicate EPIC numbers …

It is single-handedly the EC’s responsibility to ensure that voters can exercise their democratic right to vote and that it is not tampered with. Any reasonable suspicion raised by any party must be met with absolute vigilance. What has been proved beyond doubt is that the EC has totally overlooked the issue.

The EC has failed to detect the issue, which is critical for electoral democracy and it was (West Bengal CM) Mamata Banerjee and other Opposition leaders who raised it. It is unfortunate that they (the EC) could not detect the issue and this has raised suspicion that the EC is complicit. Is it not their job to look at these anomalies? They have failed in their Constitutional duty.