The Working Group of Meira Paibi announced on Wednesday that it will not extend a warm welcome to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his scheduled visit to Manipur on September 13. The decision, the group said, followed intense deliberations over the Prime Minister’s prolonged silence on the state’s ongoing crisis.
Addressing the media at the office of the Poirei Leimarol Meira Paibi Apunba Lup in Khuyathong, General Secretary Kh. Apabi Leima said the Working Committee had resolved to stage protests with slogans such as “Go back Modi – the butcher.” She asserted that the Prime Minister had failed to address the unprecedented violence that erupted on May 3, 2023, which the group alleged was instigated by illegal immigrants.
Apabi Leima recalled that in the past two years and four months, the conflict has claimed numerous lives through killings, maiming, sexual violence and enforced disappearances, while thousands remain stranded in relief camps as internally displaced persons besides banned of free movement in National Highways. She questioned the purpose of Modi’s brief visit, asking whether it was “another strategy to sabotage Manipur completely.”
Other slogans prepared by the Working Committee include “Self-determination is our right,” “AFSPA is a colonial law,” “Stop divide and rule policy,” and “We condemn Modi’s visit.”
The announcement comes as anger mounts over what many civil society organisations see as indifference from the Centre to Manipur’s prolonged turmoil. Leaders of the Poirei Leimarol Meira Paibi Apunba Lup, including president Kh. Memcha, joined Apabi Leima at the press conference, reiterating their stand that the Prime Minister’s visit cannot be seen as a step toward resolving the crisis unless concrete action is announced.