Stop Manipur violence, protect religious minorities, EU Parliament to India over Manipur

The legislative body of the European Union adopted a motion Wednesday urging the Centre to stop ongoing ethnic and religious violence in the state and protect its religious minorities.

A view of the houses that were burnt down following violence in several parts of Manipur | ANI

DISHHA BAGCHI, The Print, 13 July, 2023, New Delhi: The European Parliament adopted a motion Wednesday urging the Indian government to promptly halt the ongoing ethnic clashes in Manipur, and protect its religious minorities.

The legislative body of the European Union also “denounced in the strongest terms nationalistic rhetoric deployed by leading members of the BJP party”.

Hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Paris, the European Parliament – in its ongoing plenary session in Strasbourg, France — also called on the Centre to “to refrain from criminalising those who are critical of (the) government’s conduct”.

The European Parliament included a debate in its agenda focused on the ethnic clashes in Manipur and cases of human rights violation, that of democracy and the rule of law, based on motions submitted by six parliamentary groups, the Left, Verts/ALE, S&D, the Renew, the ECR, and the PPE.

While the motion was adopted on Wednesday, the contents of the resolution was made public Thursday.

Criticising the violence, the resolution strongly urged the Modi government “to employ all necessary measures and exert utmost efforts to promptly halt the ongoing ethnic and religious violence, to protect all religious minorities” and to “take urgent steps to restore calm and ensure an inclusive dialogue with the participation of civil society and affected communities”.

The motion also urged the government to repeal the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), calling it “unlawful” and urged for human rights to be included in the EU-India partnership.

It demanded the EU-India Human Rights Dialogue be strengthened to “publicly raise human rights concerns, notably on freedom of expression, religion and the shrinking space for civil society with India at the highest level”.

India has already expressed its strong reservation against the EU taking up the motion for discussion.

Calling it an “internal matter”, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said Wednesday, “We are aware of what is happening in the European Parliament and we have made a reach out to the concerned EU parliamentarians but we have made it very clear to them this is a matter totally and absolutely internal to India.”

It is understood that India has hired a Brussel-based lobbying firm Alber & Geiger to represent it in the European Parliament. However, the Centre is yet to comment on these developments.

The ethnic conflict in Manipur has been ongoing since 3 May, with violence and arson continuing unabated. More than 140 people have been killed and over 60,000 have been displaced.