Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday urged Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur to sit together and have a heart-to-heart conversation to end the trust deficit between the two sides.
“The Northeast has been peaceful in the last nine years. However, we have witnessed violence in Manipur and it is painful for us,” Singh said while addressing an election rally in the southern-most part of Mizoram bordering Myanmar.
“Violence is no solution to any problem. What we need is heart-to-heart conversation. I appeal to both the communities to sit together and end the trust deficit,” he added.
“I want to categorically say that it (violence) did not take place because of any political party. It happened because of certain situations,” the BJP leader further said, adding, “When the situation in Manipur was deteriorating, Congress tried its best to do politics over it.”
“There is a need to keep the entire country, including Mizoram and Northeast, away from the negative politics of Congress,” the Defence Minister said.
Singh also referred to the use of the Air Force in Mizoram by the Central government in 1966. “When Congress was ruling at the Centre, they carried out the country’s first air strike on Mizoram. Now, BJP is in power and we will never do such things,” he said.
