Guwahati: The Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh on Tuesday urged his Mizoram counterpart Lalduhoma to extend his support to solve the ongoing crisis in the state but not to interfere, in the state’s “internal matter.”
“A state never interferes in the internal matters of others. For instance, when there was the Meitei issue in Assam, the request was made to Himantaji (Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma) to look into the matter as it was an internal matter,” Biren Singh said in his speech at the 84th Nupi Lal day at GP Women’s College hall in Imphal.
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On Tuesday, Manipur paid rich tributes to women freedom fighters who took part in the first and second Nupi Lal (women’s war) against the Britishers.
“Whatever happened in Manipur is our internal matter. Most of our colleagues have expressed their willingness to help. But, unfortunately, the newly elected Chief Minister of Mizoram, I have seen one comment from him, that the state police shouldn’t harass his people in Moreh,” Singh said, referring to the border trading town in Manipur from where people of all ethnicities — except the hill-majority residents near the Myanmar border — have been allegedly chased away, with no scope of allowing their return at the moment.
The chief minister of Manipur further stated, “It is beyond his constitutional mandate as it is our internal matter. He doesn’t know what is happening in Moreh. A lot of communities have been living in Moreh. My earnest appeal to him is, please help us restore peace. I never commented when the Bru issue happened in Mizoram, so please pray and help us restore normalcy in Manipur.”
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The Bru tribes have been living in relief camps in Tripura since 1997. They had fled their homeland Mizoram to reach the neighbouring state because of ethnic clashes.