Responding to an editorial published in The Hindu on May 15 titled “Lame excuses: On Manipur and the ethnic conflict”, on the N. Biren Singh-led government’s insistence to blame “illegal immigration” for the ongoing ethnic conflict, the Manipur government on May 17 doubled down on its position, saying in a press release that the government’s drive to identify illegal immigrants had bothered them and this was “one of the reasons for the violence that broke out in Manipur”.
In a press release issued by the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR), it said, “The Manipur State government is not biased against any ethnic community and identification of illegal immigrants is not limited to only one community. The State has a firm stand on illegal migration, and it has been monitoring the issue as per the directions and instructions of the Central government.”
Further, the Manipur government said that “allegations” of it stigmatising refugees from Myanmar and handling the situation differently from Mizoram were “baseless”.
