Opposition members walk out from Parliament panel meet after demand to discuss Manipur denied

Opposition members of the parliamentary standing committee on Home walked out of a meeting on July 6 after their demand to discuss the situation in Manipur was denied by the panel chief. 

At the meeting to discuss prison reforms in Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, TMC's Derek O'Brien, and Congress' Digvijaya Singh and Pradip Bhattacharya submitted a joint letter to panel chairman Brijlal, saying as committee members they cannot ignore the situation in Manipur, the sources said. 

The letter signed by all three MPs said that as members of the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, it is their moral and constitutional responsibility to discuss this matter with utmost urgency and the required sincerity. 

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"Having been a senior police officer yourself, you understand the gravity of the situation in the state. Manipur needs healing and an end to the violence. We as elected representatives cannot look away," they said. 

They further said that some of them had written to the Chairman last month requesting an urgent meeting of the Committee to discuss Manipur, a demand which was not accepted. 
"You also informed us that this issue will not be taken up for discussion any time in July. Sir, it is your prerogative to fix the agenda of the meeting. We stand against such an evasion of responsibility to discuss an issue of national importance, and are therefore choosing to walk out of the meeting," they said. 

According to the sources, the three are unlikely to attend the two additional meetings scheduled for this month. 

They further said that before departing, the group encouraged BJP MP Biplab Deb to accompany them because he was from the Northeast. 

O'Brien and Singh had already written to Brijlal, pressing him to convene a conference to examine the situation in Manipur. 

The chairperson had separately told both MPs of the impossibility to attend urgent sessions on the Manipur issue due to three meetings on jail reforms slated for July. 

The meeting was attended by seven members, including the chairman. Since May 3, about 120 people have been killed and over 3,000 have been wounded in ethnic violence in Manipur.