Imphal: “Democracy is under threat, and there is a semblance of dictatorship under the BJP’s rule in Manipur,” senior Congress Spokesperson N Bupenda Meitei alleged here on Saturday.
“During the BJP regime, senior editors, university and college professors, journalists, bloggers, and many young people and common citizens were pulled up by the state police, and some of them were slapped with the NSA (National Security Act),” Meitei told a media meet.
When the Congress demanded a CBI probe into the drug case of Pallel, in which five Manipur police personnel were apprehended, an FIR was registered against the Manipur Congress President K. Meghachandra, MLA, and the INC candidate for Kakching Assembly Constituency, Ksh. Kennedy, he said.
“The registration of an FIR against the state Congress President, who is also an MLA, is a clear indication of the scuttling of freedom of speech and expression and freedom of movement under the BJP regime in Manipur,” he added.
The Manipur government has declared war on drugs, but there appears to be an absence of war against drug lords in the state under the BJP regime, he said.
“The government has stopped the free movement of the state Congress president and MLAs, and they are not even allowed to voice their concern for the rights of the people,” he further said.
Huge quantities of contraband drugs worth crores of rupees were seized from the police in the Pallel drugs case, and the Congress party wants an independent body to investigate the matter to find the true owner or owners of the contraband drugs, he said.
He further said, “The act of the present state government in the state shows that the incumbent Chief Minister is the weakest Chief Minister in the history of Manipur, for scuttling the voice of the opposition in democracy by using state machinery.”
“The Congress and the people of Manipur will fight to restore the freedom of speech, expression, and movement in Manipur and, together, fight for democracy to save our people and our state from being converted into a regime of dictatorship,” he added.
