Opposition MPs walk out of Parliament panel meet after demand to discuss Manipur issue denied

Three Opposition MPs, including Congress’ Digvijaya Singh and Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien, on Thursday, walked out of a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home after their demand for immediately discussing Manipur violence was not allowed.

Sources said committee chairperson Brijlal, a BJP MP, told them that he could not accede to their demand as the agenda was fixed already and cannot be changed. The third MP who walked out was Congress’ Pradeep Bhattacharya.

The meeting was called to discuss ‘Prison – Conditions, Infrastructure and Reforms’ and hear the views of prison officials from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana on the subject. Two more such meetings are scheduled with officials of other states on July 19 and 27.

Sources said the MPs told the panel chairperson that they would be forced not to attend the meetings scheduled this month till the Manipur issue is discussed.

Read | Manipur stares at food shortage as ethnic violence affects farming

They also submitted a letter to the chairperson after the walkout, saying it is their “moral and Constitutional responsibility” to discuss the issue with “utmost urgency and the requited sincerity”.

While admitting that the prerogative to fix the agenda of the meeting is the chairperson’s, they said, “we stand against such an evasion of responsibility to discuss an issue of national importance and are therefore choosing to walk out of the meeting held on July 6.”

Earlier last month, O’Brien and Singh had written separately to Brijlal urging him to call a meeting to immediately discuss the Manipur issue. However, they were informed that it could not be taken up during these meetings.

In the latest letter, the three MPs acknowledged that prison reforms are an important subject which is continually evolving but on the other hand, Manipur is facing a serious crisis.

“Having been a senior police officer yourself, you understand the gravity of the situation in the state. Manipur needs healing and an end to the violence. We as elected representatives cannot look away,” they said in the letter to Brijlal, who is a former Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police.

They said he was earlier approached by two of them seeking an urgent meeting to discuss the issue but while rejecting, he also said the issue cannot be taken up for discussion in July.