"I Am Here As Your Brother": Rahul Gandhi's Message Of "Peace" For Manipur

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had a message of "peace" for the people of Manipur after he visited relief camps in the violence-hit state. "I want to tell Manipur, I come here as your brother. I want to work with you to bring back peace in Manipur," he said.

The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, while addressing a press briefing, claimed that there was not much improvement in the situation in the state: "I expected some improvement in the situation but was disappointed to see no marked improvement."

Rahul Gandhi landed at the Imphal airport this afternoon and visited the relief camps in Jiribam and Churachandpur districts and offered support to the victims of violence there.

He also called on Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey during his visit. "It's a tremendous tragedy. I expressed displeasure with the Governor that there was not much improvement in the situation," Mr Gandhi said.

"I don't want to politicise the issue," he insisted.

He will stay in Imphal tonight and hold meetings with Manipur leaders. 

This was Mr Gandhi's third visit to the state and first after the Lok Sabha elections, in which the Congress won both constituencies in the ethnic violence-hit state.

His first visit to take stock of the situation in the hill state came nearly two months after the violence when he visited Churachandpur, one of the worst-hit districts in the Manipur ethnic strife.

Mr Gandhi's next visit came during the second leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Congress kicked off the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur with a promise to "bring peace and harmony" to the ethnic violence-hit state.

Manipur's two Lok Sabha MPs - Angomcha Bimol Akoijam (Inner Manipur) and Alfred Kanngam S Arthur (Outer Manipur (ST) - and other senior party leaders including AICC General Secretary, KC Venugopal were accompanying Rahul Gandhi.

During his visit, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF)  urged Mr Gandhi for an immediate political solution to the ethnic hostilities.

People displaced by the ethnic violence in the northeastern state, which claimed over 200 lives since May last year, are staying in those relief camps.