The Evening Wrap: Drama in Imphal as supporters stop CM Biren Singh from quitting

Beleaguered Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh was stopped by his supporters from resigning on Friday, amid high drama in Imphal. Singh was scheduled to meet Governor Anusuiya Uikye at the Raj Bhavan, barely 200 metres from his official residence, to tender his resignation at 1 p.m. The appointment was rescheduled to 3 p.m. The CM came out of his residence around 2:20 p.m., in a convoy of vehicles along with some 20 MLAs, including Ministers, but hundreds of women blocked his path to the Raj Bhavan by forming a human chain on the road. He returned to his residence after they asked him not to resign and chanted slogans in his support. A group of Ministers emerged from the CM’s residence after some time and one of them read out Singh’s resignation letter before handing it to some women, who tore it up. The BJP later announced that Singh had decided against quitting, in order to honour the sentiments of the people and civil society organisations. Leaders of the Congress and other political parties termed it a chair-saving drama. Neither Home Minister Amit Shah nor the central BJP leadership had instructed the CM to step down, an associate of Singh told The Hindu. Shah had spoken with Singh thrice on Friday to take stock of the law-and-order situation. Singh is believed to have made up his mind to quit after abuses were hurled at him during a protest in Imphal on Thursday night. The protestors expressed their anger after the bodies of two Meitei men, killed earlier in the day in a gunfight with security forces in the hill district of Kangpokpi, were brought to the centre of the State capital. “The mob has become leaderless. They do not want to give peace a chance. The CM decided to resign to send a message that he may be replaced with any other leader who would be able to set things in order. What option did he have when his own people stopped believing in him?” the associate said, declining to be quoted. While a section of the people in the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley are rallying behind Singh, the Kuki community in the hills — including seven BJP legislators — have been demanding his resignation, as well as a separate tribal administration. “Hopefully, there will be sincere efforts to restore peace from now on,” the associate said. Since the Kuki-Meitei clashes erupted on May 3, at least 130 people have been killed and more than 60,000 displaced. Since Friday morning, speculation was rife in Manipur that Singh would resign, as he had failed to contain the violence despite the deployment of 35,000 Army and central paramilitary personnel in the State. Senthilbalaji issue | T.N. government says it ‘disregards’ Governor’s decision The Tamil Nadu government has decided to “disregard” the communication of Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi on arrested Minister V. Senthilbalaji, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu said on June 30. The Governor’s action was untenable in law, he said. On the evening of June 29, Governor Ravi had unilaterally “dismissed with immediate effect” Senthilbalaji from the Council of Ministers, only to hurriedly backtrack on his decision late in the night. In a later communication to the CM, Ravi said he had been advised by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to seek the opinion of the Attorney General and therefore the order of dismissal of Senthilbalaji could be kept in abeyance. Addressing journalists, accompanied by Law Minister S. Regupathy and DMK Rajya Sabha MP P. Wilson, Thennarasu said CM M.K. Stalin would reiterate to the Governor that it is the prerogative of the CM to retain or drop a Minister. Responding to a query on the Governor’s apprehensions that Senthilbalaji continuing in his position would influence the ongoing investigation by the ED and the State police, Thennarasu pointed out that the Minister was in judicial custody, and asked how this could possibly happen. Claiming that Senthilbalaji was being “singled out”, Thennarasu charged that there were “ulterior political motives”. He referred to “at least 11 cases” pending against serving Union Ministers and pointed out that they continued to be part of the Union Cabinet. Delhi government moves Supreme Court to quash ordinance giving L-G control over services The Delhi government on June 30 urged the Supreme Court to quash an ordinance which slips control over civil servants back into the hands of the Lieutenant Governor while reducing the Chief Minister into a “minority voice” in the capital’s administration. The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government said the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, was promulgated within just eight days of the Supreme Court’s May 11 verdict in favour of the authority of Delhi government to make laws and administer civil services in the national capital. The May 11 judgment of the Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud had limited the role of the L-G, an arm of the Centre, over bureaucrats in the capital to three specific areas: public order, police and land. “The ordinance has now wrested control over civil servants serving in Delhi from the Government of NCT of Delhi to the unelected Lieutenant Governor… It has done so without seeking to amend the Constitution, in particular Article 239AA, which holds that the power and control over services should be vested in the elected government,” the Delhi government, represented by advocate Shadan Farasat, submitted. The government said the ordinance upends the Constitution Bench judgment without “altering its basis”, that is, explaining why the court’s decision to give the authority over services to the elected government was wrong in law. The petition challenges provisions in the ordinance which mandates the formation of a “permanent” National Capital Civil Service Authority (NCCSA) with the Chief Minister, as chairperson, and the Chief Secretary and Principal Home Secretary as Member and Member-Secretary, respectively. The government said that by giving the L-G a final say, the dual scheme of governance envisioned in Article 239AA has suffered a collapse. France unrest | 600 arrested and 200 police officers hurt on third night of protests over teen’s killing Protesters erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police who responded with tear gas and water cannons in French streets overnight as tensions grew over the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old that has shocked the nation. More than 600 people were arrested and at least 200 police officers injured as the government struggled to restore order on a third night of unrest. Armoured police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze in the northwestern Paris suburb of Nanterre, where a police officer shot the teen identified only by his first name, Nahel. On the other side of Paris, protesters lit a fire at the city hall of the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois and set a bus depot ablaze in Aubervilliers. In several Paris neighbourhoods, groups of people hurled firecrackers at security forces. The police station in the city’s 12th district was attacked, while some shops were looted along Rivoli street, near the Louvre museum, and at the Forum des Halles, the largest shopping mall in central Paris. President Emmanuel Macron planned to leave an EU summit in Brussels, where France plays a major role in European policymaking, to return to Paris and hold an emergency security meeting Friday. Some 40,000 police officers were deployed to quell the protests. Police detained 667 people, the Interior Minister said; 307 of those were in the Paris region alone, according to the Paris police headquarters. Around 200 police officers were injured, according to a national police spokesperson. No information was available about injuries among the rest of the population. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on June 30 denounced what he called a night of “rare violence.” His office described the arrests as a sharp increase on previous operations as part of an overall government efforts to be “extremely firm” with rioters. In brief The DGCA will conduct a special audit of Go First before it decides to permit it to resume flight operations. The audit will be conducted at Go First’s facilities at Mumbai and Delhi from July 4 to July 6. “It will be focused on safety-related aspects and continued compliance of the requirements to hold an Air Operator Certificate. It will also involve a physical verification of the arrangements made for resumption of flight operations such as backend maintenance arrangements,” a senior DGCA official said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 30 June 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Drama in Imphal as supporters stop CM Biren Singh from quitting [Beleaguered Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh was stopped by his supporters from resigning]( on Friday, amid high drama in Imphal. Singh was scheduled to meet Governor Anusuiya Uikye at the Raj Bhavan, barely 200 metres from his official residence, to tender his resignation at 1 p.m. The appointment was rescheduled to 3 p.m. The CM came out of his residence around 2:20 p.m., in a convoy of vehicles along with some 20 MLAs, including Ministers, but hundreds of women blocked his path to the Raj Bhavan by forming a human chain on the road. He returned to his residence after they asked him not to resign and chanted slogans in his support. A group of Ministers emerged from the CM’s residence after some time and one of them read out Singh’s resignation letter before handing it to some women, who tore it up. The BJP later announced that Singh had decided against quitting, in order to honour the sentiments of the people and civil society organisations. Leaders of the Congress and other political parties termed it a chair-saving drama. Neither Home Minister Amit Shah nor the central BJP leadership had instructed the CM to step down, an associate of Singh told The Hindu. Shah had spoken with Singh thrice on Friday to take stock of the law-and-order situation. Singh is believed to have made up his mind to quit after abuses were hurled at him during a protest in Imphal on Thursday night. The protestors expressed their anger after the bodies of two Meitei men, killed earlier in the day in a gunfight with security forces in the hill district of Kangpokpi, were brought to the centre of the State capital. “The mob has become leaderless. They do not want to give peace a chance. The CM decided to resign to send a message that he may be replaced with any other leader who would be able to set things in order. What option did he have when his own people stopped believing in him?” the associate said, declining to be quoted. While a section of the people in the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley are rallying behind Singh, the Kuki community in the hills — including seven BJP legislators — have been demanding his resignation, as well as a separate tribal administration. “Hopefully, there will be sincere efforts to restore peace from now on,” the associate said. Since the Kuki-Meitei clashes erupted on May 3, at least 130 people have been killed and more than 60,000 displaced. Since Friday morning, speculation was rife in Manipur that Singh would resign, as he had failed to contain the violence despite the deployment of 35,000 Army and central paramilitary personnel in the State. Senthilbalaji issue | T.N. government says it ‘disregards’ Governor’s decision The [Tamil Nadu government has decided to “disregard” the communication of Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi on arrested Minister V. Senthilbalaji]( Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu said on June 30. The Governor’s action was untenable in law, he said. On the evening of June 29, Governor Ravi had unilaterally “dismissed with immediate effect” Senthilbalaji from the Council of Ministers, only to hurriedly backtrack on his decision late in the night. In a later communication to the CM, Ravi said he had been advised by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to seek the opinion of the Attorney General and therefore the order of dismissal of Senthilbalaji could be kept in abeyance. Addressing journalists, accompanied by Law Minister S. Regupathy and DMK Rajya Sabha MP P. Wilson, Thennarasu said CM M.K. Stalin would reiterate to the Governor that it is the prerogative of the CM to retain or drop a Minister. Responding to a query on the Governor’s apprehensions that Senthilbalaji continuing in his position would influence the ongoing investigation by the ED and the State police, Thennarasu pointed out that the Minister was in judicial custody, and asked how this could possibly happen. Claiming that Senthilbalaji was being “singled out”, Thennarasu charged that there were “ulterior political motives”. He referred to “at least 11 cases” pending against serving Union Ministers and pointed out that they continued to be part of the Union Cabinet. Delhi government moves Supreme Court to quash ordinance giving L-G control over services The [Delhi government on June 30 urged the Supreme Court to quash an ordinance which slips control over civil servants back into the hands of the Lieutenant Governor]( while reducing the Chief Minister into a “minority voice” in the capital’s administration. The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government said the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, was promulgated within just eight days of the Supreme Court’s May 11 verdict in favour of the authority of Delhi government to make laws and administer civil services in the national capital. The May 11 judgment of the Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud had limited the role of the L-G, an arm of the Centre, over bureaucrats in the capital to three specific areas: public order, police and land. “The ordinance has now wrested control over civil servants serving in Delhi from the Government of NCT of Delhi to the unelected Lieutenant Governor… It has done so without seeking to amend the Constitution, in particular Article 239AA, which holds that the power and control over services should be vested in the elected government,” the Delhi government, represented by advocate Shadan Farasat, submitted. The government said the ordinance upends the Constitution Bench judgment without “altering its basis”, that is, explaining why the court’s decision to give the authority over services to the elected government was wrong in law. The petition challenges provisions in the ordinance which mandates the formation of a “permanent” National Capital Civil Service Authority (NCCSA) with the Chief Minister, as chairperson, and the Chief Secretary and Principal Home Secretary as Member and Member-Secretary, respectively. The government said that by giving the L-G a final say, the dual scheme of governance envisioned in Article 239AA has suffered a collapse. France unrest | 600 arrested and 200 police officers hurt on third night of protests over teen’s killing [Protesters erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police who responded with tear gas and water cannons in French streets overnight as tensions grew over the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old]( that has shocked the nation. More than 600 people were arrested and at least 200 police officers injured as the government struggled to restore order on a third night of unrest. Armoured police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze in the northwestern Paris suburb of Nanterre, where a police officer shot the teen identified only by his first name, Nahel. On the other side of Paris, protesters lit a fire at the city hall of the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois and set a bus depot ablaze in Aubervilliers. In several Paris neighbourhoods, groups of people hurled firecrackers at security forces. The police station in the city’s 12th district was attacked, while some shops were looted along Rivoli street, near the Louvre museum, and at the Forum des Halles, the largest shopping mall in central Paris. President Emmanuel Macron planned to leave an EU summit in Brussels, where France plays a major role in European policymaking, to return to Paris and hold an emergency security meeting Friday. Some 40,000 police officers were deployed to quell the protests. Police detained 667 people, the Interior Minister said; 307 of those were in the Paris region alone, according to the Paris police headquarters. Around 200 police officers were injured, according to a national police spokesperson. No information was available about injuries among the rest of the population. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on June 30 denounced what he called a night of “rare violence.” His office described the arrests as a sharp increase on previous operations as part of an overall government efforts to be “extremely firm” with rioters. In brief [The DGCA will conduct a special audit of Go First before it decides to permit it to resume flight operations](. The audit will be conducted at Go First’s facilities at Mumbai and Delhi from July 4 to July 6. “It will be focused on safety-related aspects and continued compliance of the requirements to hold an Air Operator Certificate. It will also involve a physical verification of the arrangements made for resumption of flight operations such as backend maintenance arrangements,” a senior DGCA official said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [Sign up for free]( Today’s Top Picks [[India urges adherence to 2016 ruling favouring Philippines in the South China Sea] India urges adherence to 2016 ruling favouring Philippines in the South China Sea]( [[Duleep Trophy 2023: North Zone continues to dictate terms, sets North East a mammoth target] Duleep Trophy 2023: North Zone continues to dictate terms, sets North East a mammoth target]( [[The Supreme Court rejects Biden's plan to wipe away $400 billion in student loans] The Supreme Court rejects Biden's plan to wipe away $400 billion in student loans]( [[Climate nears point of no return as land, sea temperatures break records: Experts] Climate nears point of no return as land, sea temperatures break records: Experts]( Copyright @ 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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