Amid continuing violence in Manipur, A.J. Philip, a veteran journalist based in Delhi wrote a letter to President Droupadi Murmu, stating that she cannot remain a "silent spectator" when a whole state has been burning.
"You may wonder how you can intervene in Manipur, except at the instance of the Modi government. You may be beholden to the PM for your nomination but you were elected by the people of India, though not directly. You are no longer anyone’s subordinate," the journalist said, reiterating that nearly 10,000 houses, over 500 churches, schools and other establishments have been burnt during the last two months.
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Clashes first broke out on May 3 after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Since the, more than 100 people have lost their lives and over 3,000 have been injured.
Referring to President Rajendra Prasad's move to dismiss the first-ever elected communist government in Kerala after a woman named Glory was killed in police action in 1959, the journalist said, "If there is a fit case for dismissal of a government, Manipur provides the same."
"I doubt whether you know that you have a greater responsibility to the nation than the Prime Minister. It is obvious in the Presidential oath, as prescribed by Article 60 of the Constitution," he further said in the letter, according to a report by Telegraph.
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Quoting the oath the President took, the journalist said that the oath of the US President is more or less the same. "No, I am not suggesting that you have the powers of the American President. Ours is not a Presidential system. The equivalent of the US President is the Prime Minister. In other words, Joe Biden’s counterpart is not you but Narendra Modi."
"What the oath enjoins upon you is the duty to act if the Constitution is subverted in spirit and, sometimes, even in letter by the government. In other words, you are not a rubber stamp or a bird in a gilded cage, as Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer described the Indian President once," he further said, adding that she cannot remain a "silent spectator" when a whole state has been burning.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently pitched for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) which has sparked mixed reactions from political parties. "Most people see it as a Muslim issue. As a tribal person, you know much better than me that the UCC would deprive the Adivasis of many of the rights they have been enjoying for centuries. Already voices of protest have come from tribal areas," the journalist further said in his letter.
Urging the president to act, he said that the oath necessitates to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. "We live in a country where hatred is openly preached and places of worship are bulldozed or burnt. Instead of the law of the land, it is the law of the mob that is upheld," he added.
