AIZAWL: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday appealed to Manipur’s warring Kuki and Meitei communities to sit together and remove their trust deficit through heart-to-heart conversations.
Addressing an election rally at Tipa in adjoining Mizoram, Rajnath Singh said the Northeast had been peaceful in the last nine years as the problem of insurgency was either finished or it ebbed but the Manipur incidents pained “all of us.”
“I want to tell it honestly that no political party triggered this violence. I would like to request them to sit together and resolve the problem. I want them to remove the trust deficit,” Singh said.
He said it is not through violence but heart-to-heart conversations that a solution to the problem could be achieved.
The statement from the defence minister comes a day after Kuki militants shot dead a police officer in the India-Myanmar border town of Moreh in Manipur.
Singh lauded the communities in Mizoram for maintaining unity and integrity of the country.
“When Congress was in power at the centre, the first airstrike that it carried out was in Mizoram. But I want to assure you that we will make sure there is never a situation in the Northeast that makes our own government to carry out an airstrike,” he told the gathering.
The Indian Air Force had carried out airstrikes in Aizawl in 1966 during the early days of the Mizo uprising. This is the first and only time that India carried out an airstrike in its own civilian territory.
Singh said the road and rail connectivity in the Northeast improved significantly under Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.
“The road and rail connectivity picture of the Northeast has changed drastically. We built 4,000 km of roads here after 2014. The government spent Rs 58,000 crore for the purpose,” the defence minister said.
He said the Northeast’s picture would change further once an ambitious highway project to connect Thailand is completed. He mentioned that in the last budget, the Centre allocated over Rs 1.34 lakh crore for the region’s infrastructure development.
“Work is going on in full swing to take railway network to the Myanmar border in Mizoram. The 223 km railway line will be built from Sairang to the international border,” Singh said.
He also said that Mizoram’s development is of paramount importance as it is an entry point of India’s growing political, business and cultural activities with the East Asian countries.
Referring to bamboo dance, he told the gathering that the BJP government at the centre made an amendment to an Act and brought bamboo from the category of tree to grass so that the Mizos can grow bamboo on their land and make and sell their bamboo products.
“You may be away from Delhi but you are closer to our heart,” he said addressing the gathering.