Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday held an all party-meeting to discuss the prevailing situation in Manipur which has seen ethnic violence for nearly two months.

BJP national president J P Nadda, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and CPI-M MP John Brittas were among the leaders present in the meeting.

The Home Minister had appealed for peace and warned of strict action against miscreants during his four-day visit to the violence-wracked state earlier in May.

After the meeting, DMK MP Tiruchi Siva slammed the Central government, saying that the situation in Manipur is not a breakdown of law and order but a failure of governance in the state and the Union Government.

He said: “It is not law and order breakdown to be controlled by police and army or Assam Rifles. It is a failure of the governance in the state and the union government.”

Speaking about the all-party meeting, Siva said: “We expressed our concern about the incidents that have been going on in Manipur for the past more than 50 days. Hundreds have been killed, thousands injured, and around 60,000 were displaced. The situation is getting worse and worse there.”

The DMK MP said: “The Home Minister just listened to every one of us. He said that he is looking after the issue and asked us to trust him in restoring peace. ‘Trust me’, is all he had to say.” Siva criticised the Prime Minister for not expressing his concern. “This is more saddening,” he said.

The DMK MP said that the opposition had requested for an all-party delegation to be sent to Manipur. However, the Home Minister responded to it saying that the central government has deployed more police forces to contain the situation. “We requested that the all-party delegation be sent to Manipur. He said we have deployed more police,” Siva said.

RJD MP Manoj Jha said after the all-party meeting: “It was an open discussion. The entire opposition went to the extent of saying that the person heading the administration of Manipur is not trustworthy…we can’t have peace in Manipur till he is in charge…”

The Home Minister had on 1^st June announced a judicial commission to investigate the Manipur violence. The Central Government had also on 10^th June constituted a Peace Committee under the Chairpersonship of State Governor Anusuiya Uikey, with a mandate to facilitate talks between conflicting groups to restore normalcy. 

The members of the committee included Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a few Ministers in the State Government, MP, MLAs and leaders from different political parties.

However, several ethnic groups had declined to cooperate with the committee, claiming there were no consultations on the constitution of the committee.