NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday took stock of the situation in ethnic violence- hit Manipur at a meeting with senior members of his Cabinet and top bureaucrats here. Among those present at the meeting were Union ministers Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman and Hardeep Puri.
The interaction came a day after the prime minister returned from his trips to the US and Egypt. Modi is now personally overseeing the situation in Manipur. Earlier in the day, Shah met Modi and updated him on the ground situation in the state as also the discussions he had with Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday.
At the meeting, Shah and senior officials, including the Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, P K Mishra, gave a detailed briefing on the efforts to restore peace in Manipur, which has been wracked by violence for the past 51 days. The role of security forces in not only ensuring area domination but also providing humanitarian assistance was also mentioned.
Apart from Manipur, Shah briefed the prime minister on the steps taken so far by the Central and state governments to tackle the flood situation in Assam.
The meeting which went on for over half an hour also touched upon Nirmala Sitharaman’s fiery response to former US President Barack Obama’s recent comments on minority rights in India. Petroleum prices and the potential for renewing NDA’s electoral alliance with other regional parties, too, briefly figured in the meeting.
Worry over changing nature of violence
“The changing nature of violence — from the exchange of fire in the peripheral areas to the civil unrest in the valley districts — has become a matter of concern for Amit Shah ji,” Biren Singh said.