Amid ruckus by Opposition MLAs, Speaker Thokcham Satyabrata Singh adjourned the one-day session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly sine die.
In fact, the budget session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly was called in February–March last year. It was cancelled due to unavoidable reasons. After this, the monsoon session was also postponed due to communal clashes starting on May 3. The crucial one-day session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly began on Tuesday morning for the first time after nearly four months of violence. As soon as the session began, heated exchanges broke out between the opposition and the ruling party. Members of the opposition party started raising slogans in the assembly like’save democracy’,’stop the killings, and ‘the government has failed to restore peace’. The ruling party also started retaliating. It took a while before the situation became critical. As a result, Speaker Singh announced the adjournment of today’s session sine die.
The Congress objected to the two-minute silence for those killed in the violence in the state and sought an extension of the one-day session to five days. According to him, there was no agenda for questions and answers or private members’ proposals in the one-day session. The Congress says that this one-day session is not in the public interest.
Meanwhile, three resolutions were passed in the assembly despite the uproar, according to a notification sent by the governor’s office. One of these was to maintain harmony without discrimination. Peace efforts through dialogue and an appeal to avoid violence.
Meanwhile, Kuki-Zomi tribal organisations rejected the one-day session, and 10 legislators from the respective communities boycotted the session. He said it was not safe for Kuki legislators to travel to the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley, where the assembly is located. However, the Naga legislators attended the session.
The Kuki-Zomi community requested the governor postpone the assembly session. They want one demand: a separate administration, but the government refused to give any special benefits. Minister Sapam Ranjan Singh said that there cannot be any separate administration in Manipur; this position of the government is clear.
On the other hand, the tribal bodies have decided that any resolution passed in Kuki-dominated areas will not be binding on the assembly. Then Meitei was one of the main demands of civil society, and opposition parties called for the assembly session. As per Article 174 of the Constitution, a legislative session has to be convened within six months of its last session.
Incidentally, the state government had recommended convening the assembly session by August 21, but without the approval of the Raj Bhavan, the day of the session was fixed for August 28. Later last week, the Chief Minister’s Office announced that the assembly session would be held on August 29.
Hindusthan Samachar/Indrani Sarkar
