Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 26 took a stocktaking meeting on Manipur with senior Cabinet colleagues, including Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri as well as high-ranking officials.
The meeting went on for more than a couple of hours in the morning, just after Mr. Modi deplaned after his state visits to the United States and Egypt.
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Sources in the government said that the meeting was in the form of a review of the situation in Manipur after an all-party meeting was held by Mr. Shah while the Prime Minister was abroad. Fuel availability and an assessment of losses in the violence that had been raging in the State since early May were also gone over. A financial relief package could also be in the works for the State looking at the loss of lives and material in arson and riots.
On Sunday evening, Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh met with Mr. Shah on the situation in his State. Speaking to The Hindu thereafter he had said that he would be initiating a new peace process, reaching out to Kukis and Meitei community leaders. Mr. Modi’s meeting with senior Cabinet colleagues is being seen in the context of this undertaking.
The all-party meeting had made it clear that the imposition of President’s Rule in the State was the “last possible option” with regard to handling the situation there, even as Opposition leaders had demanded the removal of Mr. Singh as Chief Minister owing to his failure to control the violence.
