The European Parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution that called on the Indian authorities to take all the necessary measures to stop the on-going violence in Manipur and protect the religious minorities especially Christians.
The resolution was tabled by five political groups and was adopted by a show of hands during the plenary session of the parliament. The adoption took place in the afternoon with other votes on schedule, just after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in France for official visit.
A day earlier, Indian foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra had told reporters that this was an “internal matter.” He had also mentioned that India had reached out to EU lawmakers on this issue ahead of tabling of the resolution.
The five political groups that authored the resolution were the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the left Green-European Free Alliance, the liberal Renew group, the centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group. These parliamentary factions account for around 80% of the lawmakers in 705 member parliament.
The resolution expressed concern that ethnic violence in Manipur over the last two months that has left 120 dead, 50,000 displaced, and destroyed over 1,700 houses and over 250 churches and several temples.