Imphal: Former Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Prof. Meijinlung Kamson calls for concerted effort from all sections of society for the restoration of peace and normalcy in the state.

In a tete-e-tete with the presser, Prof. Kamson said, “Various ethnic communities are residing since time immemorial. The recent incident has affected all the communities of the state and this issue is a blot in the history of Manipur.”

He added, “This time, the matter has become much worse since the state’s territorial integrity is at risk. In order to bring peace and tranquility, all sections of the society should join hands.”

He further said, “Till now, the Centre and State Governments have taken up various preventive measures and constructive solutions to bring back ‘the much-needed’ normalcy. As of now, the incident is being seen as a riot between the Meiteis and the Kukis.

But I think there is larger deeper background to it and we need to see it too. I think the state has its own problems before and the current incident is a manifestation of those unsolved earlier problems.”

The former MoS said, “After Independence, since 1950s various waves of refugee influx from Myanmar had occurred. And our inability to tackle that influx properly at that time by the then governments is one of the major reasons of the present crisis. The blame was not entirely the governments, as the phenomenon of migration is a part of historical development.”

Prof. Kamson further said, “Another reason is the inability to complete the NRC implementation process. What I want to comment is that the issue should not be viewed on the surface layer, but should be looked into deeply. Other factors such as poppy plantation and encroachments also come into play.

Both the Centre as well as State Government, politicians, intellectuals need to see the problem deeply as a serious issue and concrete steps should be taken up.”

He appealed to the Government, politicians, intellectuals, CSOs and other stakeholders to continue to strive towards upholding the unity and integrity of the state of Manipur, which has a rich history of over 2000 years.

It may be mentioned that Prof. Meijinlung Kamson is an Indian politician from Manipur who has served as the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs from 1995–96. He was elected four times to 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Lok Sabha from Outer Manipur (Lok Sabha constituency) in Manipur, India.