Crossing all barriers and breaking the invisible wall brick by brick, BJP MLA from the Meitei community, Yumnam Khemchand Singh, for the first time travelled to two Kuki hamlets on Monday and met with the inhabitants affected by the conflict at Litan, a Kuki hamlet about 40 km away from the state capital located in the Ukhrul district in Manipur.
The BJP MLA headed to the relief camp at Litan Sareikhong Baptist Church, currently sheltering 173 inmates, and interacted with Kuki inmates who fled their homes during the violence, and inquired about their lives and hardships faced in the past two and a half years. He consoled the villagers and highlighted the imperative need for peace in Manipur, which should be the primary target of all communities residing in the state.
“We should not allow this conflict to affect the future of our children. We, the elders, may have differences, but we should think about our children’s future,” Khemchand stated during the interaction.
Khemchand, a sportsman-turned-politician and the founder of the Assam Taekwondo Association in the neighboring state, had also earlier served as Rural Development Minister before RP and as the Speaker of the Manipur Assembly respectively.
“With the coming of Christmas, we all should pray for the return of peace in the state,” Yumnam said. “There are conflicts among different countries, and there are conflicts among different communities across the world. But we should learn to live in harmony despite the existing differences. There should not be any hindrance in visiting each other’s villages,” Yumnam added.
While Khemchand was Rural Development Minister, he brought a package for the construction of 7000 houses from the Centre for IDPs. He had also earlier organised a relief camp for internally displaced persons of the Meitei community at Manipur College in Imphal for over seven months. He helped the inmates to return to their houses in Serou and Sugunu villages.
Opingson Shimray, State BJP Vice President and prominent Tangkhul Naga leader who accompanied Yumnam during the journey, said that it was a remarkable gesture by Yumnam to travel to Kuki villages in the hills when everyone today is reluctant to venture to another community’s area. He said that Yumnam is the first BJP Meitei MLA to step into a Kuki relief camp.
Another Tangkhul Naga leader, Mark Luithing, former ADC Chairman, said that Yumnam is the first leader to start people-to-people contact after the May 2023 violence. He said Yumnam also visited Chassad Kuki village in Kamjong district, also bordering Myanmar.
