Manipur Congress condemns detention of vernacular paper editor

Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) strongly condemned state government over detention of one editor of the vernacular papers of Manipur, Sanaleibak in connection to alleged expression of his views on poppy cultivation in one of the local TV discussion hours.

Addressing media in a press conference held at Congress Bhawan on January 5, senior spokesperson of MPCC, Hareshwar Goshwami said that the state government always affirmed their stand of launching War on Drugs is a vision to end drug menace from the state. But ironically, they had detained an editor of Sanaleibak newspaper for expressing his views on poppy planation as suggestion which is highly condemnable.

“A photo of high-class woman standing in middle of poppy cultivation site went viral recently. At that time, state government didn’t take up any action against that lady. But when an editor criticized the state government on poppy cultivation is being detained. This immature act of state government is unfortunate,” he stated while recalling about a photo that went viral in social media.

He said that the state government had made various promises but they are unable to fulfil most of them. Amongst them War on Drugs is also one of them.

At one point of time, Manipur was just a transit route of drugs trade. But with the advent of BJP many drug manufacturing units were set up despite the fact that the state government had launched War on Drugs, he added.

He also criticized union home minister Amit Shah rewarding former poppy cultivators during his visit in Manipur. He said that cultivation of poppy cultivation is an illegal activity. As such rewarding them during visit of union home minister indirectly promote illegal activity.

 Earlier, Manipur Police on January 4 detained Hemantakumar Ningombam an Editor of a vernacular paper published in the state for allegedly expressing his opinion during a TV programme.