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

Several opposition members walked out of a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs on Thursday, as their demand to hold discussions on the situation in violence-hit Manipur was denied by the panel chairman.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, chaired by BJP MP Brij Law, met here to continue deliberations on 'Prison - Conditions, Infrastructure and Reforms'.

Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh and Pradeep Bhattacharya, and Trinamool Congress' Derek O'Brien walked out of the meeting as a protest for not taking up the developments in Manipur.


"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," the three MPs stated in a letter addressing the panel chairman.

Prison reforms is an important subject, but Manipur is in "serious crisis", they wrote in the letter.

"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," said the letter to Lal, a former DGP of Uttar Pradesh.

Both O'Brien and Singh had earlier also written to Lal seeking a discussion on the violence in Manipur.

In a letter written to Lal on June 15, O'Brien had demanded an "urgent" meeting of the parliamentary committee saying that as representatives of the democratic system, it was crucial that "we stand by those who are affected by it".