Muslims shall boycott the visit of Modi

IMPHAL, February 6: The Muslims seem to be sharply polarised over the issue of boycotting the visit of Narendra Modi, the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP. He is scheduled to come to Imphal for a few hours on Saturday.

Two Muslim organizations had announced that the Muslims in Manipur shall boycott the visit. Yesterday, these two Muslim groups had roped in other women’s and students’ organizations to address a press conference. The impression was that many sections of the Muslims shall boycott the visit of Modi.

On the other hand, the Muslim advocates in the State have made it clear that there is no question of boycotting the visit. It will be wrong that the Muslims in the State shall boycott the visit on the basis of the press statements of one or two organizations. Modi is a prominent politician. Besides, he is the Prime Ministerial candidate in a democracy. It will be illegal to boycott the visit.

One outlawed underground organization, the United Revolutionary Front, had announced its boycott of the visit. It had also imposed a general strike aimed at disturbing the public meeting where Modi shall address. The State government has beefed up security measures through out the valley districts of Imphal east and Imphal west. It is understood that even central forces will be used in maintaining law and order.

The State unit functionaries of the BJP have not taken notice of the boycott call. They are going ahead with the preparations of the visit impervious to the loud boycott calls.

(Source)The Sentinel — The Largest Media group of North-East India — focused on news publishing. Combined circulation of the group is over 120,000 newspapers per day, making it the largest newspaper group in the region. The Sentinel is the only English daily in the Northeast India with five editions published simultaneously from Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Shillong, Silchar and Itanagar. For all local, national and international news please visit http://www.sentinelassam.com/