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Imphal, Sept. 26: The Opposition Manipur People’s Party today reacted sharply to the statement made by Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde rejecting the resolution passed by Manipur Assembly to introduce the inner line permit in the state.
“Our Constitution will not allow such things. Any sensible person who believes in the Constitution will not pass such a bill,” Shinde reportedly said in New Delhi on September 10, clearly referring to the resolution.
The report about Shinde’s rejection of the permit had appeared in The Telegraph on September 11 as “Shinde turns down Rio, Ibobi proposals”.
“The statement made by the Union home minister is a direct attack on the authority and lowered the dignity of the state Assembly. The statement is condemnable,” Okram Joy Singh, veteran parliamentarian and adviser to the Manipur People’s Party, told reporters today.
The issue may snowball into a major controversy as the party is planning to lobby all non-Congress parties in Manipur against Shinde’s statement.
“We are sending copies of the newspaper report that carries the statement of the Union home minister to all non-Congress parties so they also take up the matter at a proper forum,” Joy Singh said.
He also quoted some well-known parliamentary proceedings and conduct of houses to justify the claim that Shinde’s statement damaged the image of Manipur Assembly.
The Manipur Assembly had passed the resolution unanimously on July 13 after three Trinamul Congress members moved a private members resolution on the inner line permit.
The Assembly passed the resolution following a widespread public movement seeking imposition of the permit system to regulate the entry of foreigners.
Citizens’ groups are apprehensive that migrants would outnumber locals if their entry were not restricted.
The system still exists in Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
“The Centre has the right to reject the resolution. But instead of doing so, the Union minister termed members of the Assembly as insensible persons amounts to contempt of the House,” Joy Singh said.
He demanded that Shinde should withdraw his statement.
Singh also said if the Constitution did not allow imposition of the system then it should be amended to protect indigenous people.
Party president S. Umanand also said some mechanism should be worked out by amending the Constitution to protect local residents, who were facing the threat of becoming “refugees and beggars” in their own state.
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