Rahul’s convoy stopped by police at Manipur’s Bishnupur

Imphal: The convoy of Rahul Gandhi, who arrived in Imphal on Thursday on a two-day visit to Manipur, has been stopped by the police in Bishnupur.

A police official in Imphal said that "due to the law and order issue", his convoy was stopped, but the officer refused to give further details.

Immediately after his arrival, the former Congress president left for Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts, one of the worst-hit hill districts, but the police stopped his convoy in Bishnupur.

A large number of women assembled in Bishnupur before Gandhi arrived at the place and they tussled with the police asking the security forces to allow Gandhi to visit the areas.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the Manipur Police action. He said in his tweet, " Shri Rahul Gandhi’s convoy in Manipur has been stopped by the police near Bishnupur. He is going there to meet the people suffering in relief camps and to provide a healing touch in the strife-torn state. PM Modi has not bothered to break his silence on Manipur. He has left the state to fend for itself. Now, his double engine disastrous governments are using autocratic methods to stall a compassionate outreach by Shri Rahul Gandhi. This is totally unacceptable and shatters all Constitutional and Democratic norms. Manipur needs peace, NOT confrontation."

Congress General Secretaries K.C. Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh and state party leaders criticised the BJP government's actions against the Congress leader.

Ramesh tweeted, "It is most unfortunate that the Modi Govt is preventing Rahul Gandhi from visiting relief camps and interacting with the people outside Imphal. His 2-day visit to Manipur is in the spirit of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Prime Minister may choose to remain silent or be inactive but why stop Rahul Gandhi's efforts to listen to all sections of the Manipuri society and provide a healing touch ?"

Venugopal said, "Rahul Gandhi's convoy has been stopped by police near Bishnupur. Police say that they are not in a position to allow us. People are standing on both sides of the road to wave to Rahul Gandhi. We are not able to understand why have they stopped us ?"

"I do not know why the Police are not allowing us. Rahul Gandhi's visit is to meet the affected people only. We travelled around 20-25 km but there was no road blockage anywhere. Rahul Gandhi is sitting inside the car. I do not know who has instructed the local police," Venugopal told the media.

Accompanied by AICC in-charge of several northeastern states, Ajoy Kumar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrived in Imphal on Thursday on a two-day visit to Manipur, where the ethnic violence since May 3 has so far claimed 120 lives.

Over 50,000 men, women and children, are now staying in more than 350 relief camps across the state since the violence first erupted.

The senior Congress leader is scheduled to interact with the civil society organisations, tribal and non-tribal leaders, as well as prominent citizens in the two districts -- Bishnupur and Churachandpur.

The Congress has been demanding imposition of the President's Rule in Manipur to control the law and order situation as the party claims that the state's BJP government has completely failed to deal with the violence.

Earlier, a few Congress delegations visited the state and later met President Droupadi Murmu in Delhi to garner support for their demands.

The Congress leaders also tried to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi but he did not give appointments. Former three-term Manipur Chief Minister and currently Congress legislature party leader, Okram Ibobi Singh criticised the BJP state government for its refusal to withdraw the Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement with the Kuki militants, signed by the previous Congress regime in August 2008.

He said that the SoO deal was signed after extensive consultations with various national agencies, serving as a peace initiative and the Congress firmly believes in pursuing peace as a means to find solutions as opposed to resorting to violence. "The Kuki militants under the SoO agreement strictly followed the ground rules resulting in no reports of violence attributed to them during the Congress regime (until 2017). However, the militants began flouting the ground rules under the BJP regime in Manipur, utilising them for electoral gains," the veteran Congress leader told the media.