President's rule failed to maintain peace in Manipur, alleges Congress
Imphal (PTI): Amid protests over concealing the state’s name on the windshield of a government bus, Manipur Congress president Keisham Meghachandra alleged that the President's rule has "failed" to maintain peace in the state.
He also claimed Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla, who took charge in January this year, should be recalled by the Centre.
The Centre had on February 13 imposed the President's rule in Manipur after Chief Minister N Biren Singh resigned, following a prolonged ethnic violence in the state.
The state assembly, which has a tenure till 2027, has been put under suspended animation.
In a post on X, Meghachandra, the Wangkhem MLA, alleged, "Double-engine government had already failed Manipur for the last more than 2 years. President's Rule, too, has failed Manipur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly fails Manipur. Home Minister Amit Shah should resign. Manipur governor should be recalled."
The term “double engine” is used by BJP leaders to refer to the party being in power at the Centre as well as in a state.
The Congress leader's remarks come at a time when the state has been witnessing protests for the last few days over the concealing of the state’s name on the windshield of a government bus last week.
The protesters have been demanding an apology from the governor for the May 20 incident.
The security personnel had stopped the bus at Gwaltabi check post, around 25 km from Imphal, and allegedly forced the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) staff to conceal the state’s name written on the top of the vehicle’s windshield with a piece of white paper.
The bus with journalists on board was heading to the Shirui Lily festival in Ukhrul district on May 20 when the incident happened.
Referring to the Gwaltabi incident, Meghachandra said, "Who instructed Manipur Governor to remove the word 'Manipur' from the Manipur State Transport Corporation bus?"
To intensify their protest, students and women's groups had on Monday formed a human chain, covering a stretch of six kilometres from Imphal airport to Keisampat, around 200 metres away from the governor's residence.
In view of the demonstration, the governor, who had arrived in Imphal from New Delhi on Monday, had taken an Army helicopter to reach Kangla Fort, located around 300 metres from the Raj Bhavan.
In a post late on Monday, Meghachandra also said, "Manipur Governor had to take a helicopter to fly from Imphal International Airport in order to reach Raj Bhavan, which is around 7 km by road travel from the airport, today."
More than 260 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups since May 2023.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
