Imphal/Guwahati:

A video uploaded on the Congress party’s official YouTube channel ‘INC TV’ has become the latest flashpoint between the BJP and the Congress in Manipur.

In the now-deleted video, the Congress’s former Manipur in-charge Bhakta Charan Das alleged the state BJP created “two special forces like the RSS and the Bajrang Dal… One is Arambai Tenggol, and the other is called Meitei Leepun.”

“What are these organisations?” Mr Das said, referring to the two controversial organisations, and comparing them with the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Manipur BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh then raised in a public forum the comment made by Mr Das and questioned the Congress over the allegations.

Don’t need to say anything regarding this. Check this link of @INCIndia and see and hear for yourself. Rather than saying you don’t agree with the statement of the Central Leaders, @INCManipur is saying it’s a fake video. I have nothing to say, it means they are accepting what… https://t.co/GuUD5LTTVWpic.twitter.com/W8aHqNN7RQ

— Rajkumar Imo Singh (Modi Ka Parivaar) (@imosingh) April 3, 2024

In response, Manipur Congress spokesperson Kh Ratankumar Singh told reporters the BJP MLA referred to a fake video that has been dubbed, in which Mr Das was purportedly heard blaming one community over the ethnic violence in Manipur between the Kuki-Zo tribes and the Meiteis.

In his counterattack, Rajkumar Imo Singh, who is also the son-in-law of Chief Minister N Biren Singh, posted on the microblogging platform ‘X’ the video from the Congress’s official YouTube channel in which Mr Das is heard questioning the ruling BJP in Manipur over alleged links with the two groups.

“Don’t need to say anything regarding this. Check this link of the Congress and see and hear for yourself. Rather than saying you don’t agree with the statement of the central leaders (of Congress), Manipur Congress is saying it’s a fake video. I have nothing to say. It means they are accepting what Bhakta Charan Das is saying,” Rajkumar Imo Singh said in the post which also has a hyperlink to the now-deleted Congress video.

“If the video is wrong, the state Congress should have told its headquarters in Delhi. It should have countered its own party to defend Manipur’s image from being tarnished,” Rajkumar Imo Singh added.

The state Congress spokesperson later clarified that Mr Das did make the comments on the Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun last year just after the ethnic clashes escalated, adding the fake video to which the Congress is referring to is about Mr Das blaming one community for the violence.

“We won’t lie. Das had said all this last year amid the violence. But bringing up this video now is only propaganda. It is out of context. And Das made the comments in his personal capacity. It was not the party’s official statement,” Kh Ratankumar Singh told reporters in the state capital Imphal.

In a press conference held today at Congress Bhavan, Imphal Dr. Ratankumar, Spokesperson, MPCC, clarified the alleged charge by Shri @imosingh, MLA, BJP Manipur.
He said that the video produced by the BJP MLA is a doctored video and only to spread fake news to the people of… pic.twitter.com/roWUpsGKwH

— INC Manipur (@INCManipur) April 2, 2024

BJP sources said the state Congress spokesperson’s clarification is bizarre, given that the Opposition has been criticising the Manipur BJP over alleged links with the two groups, and now suddenly the Congress has a change of heart and doesn’t want to criticise the Arambai Tenggol and the Meitei Leepun during election season.

“Why did the Congress remove the authentic YouTube video in which Mr Das is heard commenting on Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun?” a senior BJP leader said, requesting anonymity.

The Arambai Tenggol, or AT, is a Meitei youth group that faces allegations of taking up arms and attacking Kuki-Zo villages. The AT has denied the allegation, and claimed it is only a village defence volunteer group, same as those from the Kuki-Zo tribes who are holed up in bunkers on the hills with sophisticated weapons.

The Meitei Leepun, headed by Pramot Singh, has been in the news for its aggressive stand against the Kuki-Zo tribes, which the group holds responsible for the crisis in Manipur. The Manipur Police had filed a case against Pramot Singh in July 2023 for allegedly promoting enmity between groups and criminal conspiracy.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held for Manipur’s two parliamentary constituencies at a time when 45,000 people are still living in relief camps. Over 210 have died in the violence, which began in May 2023 over a number of reasons, mainly serious disagreements over sharing land, resources, political representation, and affirmative action policies.

The entire Inner Manipur constituency and some areas under Outer Manipur will vote on April 19. The remaining areas under Outer Manipur will vote on April 26. Votes will be counted on June 4. The key candidates are Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh (BJP), Angomcha Bimol Akoijam (Congress), and Maheshwar Thounaojam of the Republican Party of India (Athawale).

Imphal/Guwahati:

This election season, the ruling BJP in the border state Manipur has opened a new front against the Congress over the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA. The Manipur assembly on March 1 passed a resolution that asked the Centre to begin the process of carrying out the NRC exercise to identify illegal immigrants and deport them.

Continuing the offensive from where he left last week, BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh told supporters in Imphal that not a single Congress MLA was present inside the assembly when the resolution on the NRC was passed.

“All five of them were outside, posing for photos and talking on camera. Later, we came to know why,” Mr Singh said.

He took out his phone in front of party supporters and showed a 2019 post by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the microblogging website X, formerly Twitter, which criticised the NRC and the CAB – a bill then, CAB in short – as “weapons of mass polarisation”.

“And why did the Congress MLAs walk out of the assembly during the NRC resolution? In 2019, Rahul Gandhi tweeted ‘CAB and NRC are weapons of mass polarisation… I stand in solidarity with all those protesting peacefully against the CAB and the NRC’. Rahul Gandhi was Congress president that time. The Congress has always opposed NRC and CAA,” said Mr Singh, who is also the son-in-law of Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

Mr Gandhi stepped down as Congress chief in July 2019 after taking responsibility for a second straight national election defeat. He won from Wayanad seat in Kerala, but lost his second seat in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani. Until then, Mr Gandhi had been winning from Amethi since 2004.

In Manipur, where tensions have been high between the Kuki-Zo tribes and the Meiteis since clashes erupted in May 2023, the Meiteis and other major communities except the Kuki-Zo tribes have been demanding the NRC exercise to be carried out. The NRC exercise aims to identify illegal immigrants based on a cut-off year and deport them.

Assam was the first state to implement the NRC, and the process faced several challenges including 19 lakh people among three crore left out of the list. Many whose names did not appear in the list had filed appeals saying there has been a mistake. The process of analysing the appeals and taking decisions on them is going on.

The CAA, whose rules were notified on March 11 in line with the Centre’s promise on enforcing the rules before the national elections this year, will help minorities from three neighbouring Islamic nations fast-track their Indian citizenship process if they fled due to religious persecution.

The Meiteis, who are dominant in Manipur’s valley areas, want NRC to be implemented, while the Kuki-Zo tribes, who are dominant in the hill areas of southern Manipur and a few other districts, have alleged the Meiteis want to grab their lands by calling them illegal immigrants since the Kuki-Zo tribes share familial and ethnic ties with the Chin people in neighbouring Myanmar. Thousands of people from Myanmar’s Chin State and other regions of the junta-ruled nation have entered India after fleeing from the conflict between the junta forces and pro-democracy rebels.

Home Minister Amit Shah last year told parliament one of the factors behind the Manipur crisis was the huge influx of illegal immigrants.

The people of Manipur needs to understand the facts and realities. Don’t go by emotions, the future of Manipur depends upon all of us realising the true nature. We witnessed Welcome to Kukiland play-cards during the visit of @INCIndia leader Shri @RahulGandhi to Kangpokpi. Well… pic.twitter.com/BoFFlmXSZM

— Rajkumar Imo Singh (Modi Ka Parivaar) (@imosingh) March 29, 2024

Opium poppy farming, illegal immigrants, and ethnic tensions are among the biggest issues ahead of the Lok Sabha election in Manipur, to be held in two phases on April 19 and 26.

Inner Manipur’s Congress candidate is Dr Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, a professor in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and the BJP candidate is Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh, the state Education Minister.

Manipur has two Lok Sabha seats – Inner Manipur, and Outer Manipur. The entire Inner Manipur constituency and some areas under Outer Manipur will vote on April 19. The remaining areas under Outer Manipur will vote on April 26. Votes will be counted on June 4.