Imphal/Shillong: The demolition of Shillong’s iconic Redlands Building on Friday has triggered widespread shock and outrage both in Manipur and Meghalaya.

The controversial Manipur Merger Agreement was signed on September 21, 1949, between Maharaja Bodhachandra and representatives of the Union of India in this historic Redlands Building, also called Manipuri Rajbari, constructed in the 1940s. After the merger agreement, the erstwhile princely state of Manipur merged with the Indian Union in October 1949.

Coincidentally, the demolition took place at a time when Meghalaya Chief Minister and President of the National People’s Party (NPP) Conrad K. Sangma was visiting Imphal to assess the ongoing ethnic crisis in Manipur.

Sangma, while talking to the media in Imphal, categorically denied a

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