Shall we meet the Prime Minister? Yes and No in Imphal on day before he arrives

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives here tomorrow to personally intervene in the Manipur crisis, reserving 75 minutes of his stay for thos...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives here tomorrow to personally intervene in the Manipur crisis, reserving 75 minutes of his stay for those who would want to meet him and help resolve the tangle.

If on the one hand, there’s a rush for appointments by just about anyone holding a banner or a placard, there’s also the other side: students and activists, who took to the streets over the alleged custody death of Manorama Devi, want to stay out of any such meeting until the Centre gives a commitment on repealing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

Until late this evening, the Apunba Lup, a conglomerate of 32 different organisations spearheading the agitation for the scrapping of the Act, was busy trying to iron out differences between its own constituents over meeting the Prime Minister.

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While the All Manipur Students Union (AMSU) is clear that it will not meet the PM, human right groups and other NGOs are keen to meet Singh and hand him a list of five incidents of ‘‘military excesses’’ after his assurance in New Delhi to replace AFSPA with a more ‘‘humane Act’’.

This coalition is unlikely to squander the 75-minute opportunity, particularly when the Centre has set up a committee to review the AFSPA ahead of Singh’s visit.

	Jeevan Reddy to head AFSPA review panel

			NEW DELHI: Former SC judge Justice Jeevan Reddy will head the 5-member committee to review the AFSPA, it was officially announced on Friday. Others on the panel are jurist S B Nakade, retired bureaucrat P P Shrivastava, former DGMO Lt Gen V R Raghavan and journalist Sanjoy Hazarika.

But that could well be without the AMSU which plans to announce tomorrow a ban on NCC and teaching of Hindi in colleges across Manipur. ‘‘We had set a November 19 deadline for the Government to repeal the AFSPA. If the PM has no such assurance to give, then we don’t want to meet him. We will go ahead and impose the ban again,’’ Y Devadutta, AMSU coordinator with Apunba Lup, told The Indian Express.

The government, on its part, has extended no invitation to the Apunba Lup and waits for them to resolve their differences. While the AMSU has been kept out of the loop, some members of the Apunba Lup claim they are in touch with the Governor’s office.

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Amidst all this, the banned Revolutionary People’s Front has called for a ‘‘public curfew’’ and directed people to stay indoors during the PM’s visit. Official sources said such a call was expected but would not stop people from attending the PM’s rally.