Cong slams Centre over US ambassador's comments on Manipur violence

New Delhi, July 7 (IANS) A day after US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti commented on Manipur violence, the Congress on Friday slammed the Centre, saying it has never heard a US Ambassador making a statement of this nature about the internal affairs of India. 

Congress leader Manish Tewari slammed the government, and in a tweet said, "To the best of my recollection going back at least four decades in Public life  I have never heard an US Ambassador making a statement of this nature about the internal affairs of India."

"We faced Challenges in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, North East over the decades and surmounted those with sagacity and wisdom. Even when Robin Raphel would be loquacious on J&K in the 1990's the US Ambassador's in India were circumspect," Tewari, a former Union minister said. 

"I doubt if the New US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti is cognisant of the convoluted and torturous history of US-India relations and our sensitivity about interference perceived or real, well intentioned or mal intentioned into our internal affairs," the Congress leader added.

His remarks came a day after Garcetti, while speaking on the violence in  Manipur, said, ''I don't think it's about strategic concerns, it's about human concerns. You don't have to be an Indian to care when children or individuals die in this sort of violence. 

"We know peace as a precedent for so many good things. There has been so much progress in the Northeast and the East...We stand ready to assist in any way if asked. We know it's an Indian matter and we pray for that peace and that it may come quickly. Because we can bring more collaboration, more projects, more investment if that peace is in place," the US ambassador said in Kolkata on Thursday.

Violence erupted in Manipur on May 3 and since then over 100 people have died and thousands have been forced to take refuge in the relief camps. 

The Congress has questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also demanded immediate removal of Chief Minister N. Biren Singh for failing miserably to control the situation in the northeastern state.

The Congress has said that it will raise the issue of Manipur violence in Parliament's Monsoon Session.