Police this afternoon foiled a rally organized by the Youth Front of the Manipur Peoples’ Party (MPP) outside the party office in Imphal, coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state.
The youth wing said the protest was intended to expose what it called the Centre’s “divisive and delaying tactics” in handling the nearly two-year-long Manipur crisis. Party members accused the government of deepening mistrust by treating the two communities separately, while refusing to commit to a concrete settlement.
“The Prime Minister has time to inaugurate projects worth crores, but not a single word for the displaced families living in camps for over 16 months,” an MPP youth leader told reporters. “This silence is not just indifference—it is cruelty.”
Protesters charged that the prolonged conflict has entrenched buffer zones, uprooted thousands, and shattered civilian lives. “How long will our children grow up behind barbed wires, in relief camps, without schools, without homes?” asked another leader. “New Delhi keeps dragging its feet, but every day the human cost rises.”
The MPP condemned the police action that stopped the rally, saying it exposed the Centre’s unwillingness to hear democratic voices. “To silence us on the very day the Prime Minister visits Manipur is proof that this government fears the truth. They want photo opportunities, not honest dialogue,” the party declared in a statement.
Warning of lasting consequences, the party said: “If this crisis is not resolved inclusively and immediately, it will become a permanent fracture in Manipur’s social fabric. The Centre must stop its divisive approach and start treating Manipur’s pain with the sincerity it deserves.”