According to community leaders, the majority of Kuki MLAs, regardless of their party affiliations, are unlikely to attend the Manipur assembly session that has been scheduled to begin on August 21 given the ongoing ethnic violence.
However, an apex Meitei organisation COCOMI asserted that it would secure the safety of tribal MLAs if ‘they really want to come.’ COCOMI has been leading calls for an early session of the assembly to ‘unanimously’ reject requests for separate administrative entities for Kukis.
In a telephone conversation with PTI, Churachandpur’s BJP MLA LM Khaute stated, ‘Given the current law and order situation, it will not be possible on my part to attend the upcoming session.’ Churachandpur is one of the districts most severely affected by the latest race riots.
For good measure, Khaute said that the violence and the failure to satisfy Kuki demands for a separate government ‘will not make it possible for all the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar MLAs to attend the session.’
In the Manipur House, which has a total of 60 members, there are 10 Kuki-Zomi MLAs, including seven from the BJP, two from the Kuki People’s Alliance, and one independent.
The MLAs won’t be safe flying to Imphal, according to Tongmang Haokip, president of the Kuki People’s Alliance (KPA), who also told PTI that ‘one BJP MLA Vungzagin Valte who represents Thanlon was badly assaulted there and is still receiving medical attention.’
He continued by saying that only ‘if there is a guarantee from the state government and the Centre and adequate steps are taken for the safety of MLAs’ could this concern be allayed.
Analysts argue that it is doubtful that any substantive conversation on the ethnic unrest that has gripped Manipur for the previous three months and claimed more than 160 lives could take place without Kuki representation.
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