NPP withdraws support to Biren Govt

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Nov 17 :  The National People’s Party (NPP) has withdrawn its support to the Biren-led BJP Government in Manipur.
Speaking to media persons at his Naoremthong residence today, NPP National vice-president Yumnam Joykumar said that NPP president Conrad K Sangma wrote a letter to BJP president JP Nadda today informing that NPP has decided to withdraw its support to the Biren-led Government in the State of Manipur with immediate effect.
Whereas the situation has been aggravating day by day, the BJP Government was not listening to the suggestions put forward by NPP from time to time regarding the violent crisis.
“Subsequently after consulting with the party president, we decided to withdraw our support to the Biren Government”, Joykumar said.
He said that the NPP took this decision because the party has lost faith in the Biren Government.
Notwithstanding the decision to withdraw its support to the Biren Government, NPP would extend all possible help towards bringing an end to the violent crisis and restoration of peace in Manipur, he said.
The threat to the integrity of Manipur and its territorial boundary is becoming more pronounced and the law and order situation is extremely bad, said Joykumar who earlier served as the State’s Deputy Chief Minister.
After three women and three children were taken hostage by Kuki militants from Jiribam on November 11, no serious efforts could be seen on the part of the Government to rescue them, he decried.
There is a report that another person was entrusted  with the task of coordinating the rescue efforts instead of the local MLA. Had the local MLA intervened personally, the hostages could have been saved, Joykumar said.
The Government could have sought the help of Assam Rifles whom the people suspect to be close to the Kuki people, he said.
He asserted that there was no point in holding Cabinet meeting and making recommendations to declare the women and child murderers as terrorist groups.
In the initial days of the Manipur crisis, NPP National executive council held a meeting on May 22, 2023 at Delhi.
The meeting adopted a number of resolutions and the same were forwarded to Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the form of a memorandum, Joykumar continued.
The memorandum urged the Union Home Minister to initiate confidence building measures between the two communities in conflict, let there be neutral administration, leave no room for parallel Government, let the peace committee work properly and let there be free flow of goods and services on National Highways.  
There was no sign of the Government translating any of these points into action, the NPP National vice-president decried.    
To a query, Joykumar said that the decision to withdraw the party’s support to the Biren Government was adopted after discussing the matter with all the NPP MLAs of Manipur.
He said that letters would be sent to the Governor, the Manipur Legislative Assembly Speaker and other relevant authorities informing NPP’s decision to withdraw its support to the Biren-led BJP Government.