'Who was protecting culprits?': TMC's charge at Manipur CM's over vile video

A video of a May 4 incident, showing a mob parading two women naked in Manipur, surfaced on social media sparking massive outrage on Wednesday.

Amid nationwide outrage over the abhorrent treatment of two Manipur women, Trinamool Congress party spokesperson Saket Gokhale Friday reiterated the demand for chief minister N Biren Singh's resignation. Taking to Twitter, Gokhale questioned why the perpetrators – who paraded two Kuki tribe women naked and sexually assaulted them – were arrested only after the video went viral on social media.

Students taking out candle march against Manipur violence at the campus of Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) in Patna. (Photo by Santosh Kumar / Hindustan Times)

Tagging Singh in a post with a screenshot of the CM's earlier tweet on the incident, Gokhale charged “…were the police waiting for the video to go viral to arrest the perpetrators?…were these rapists the Bharatiya Janata Party workers or your people? Why weren’t they arrested for 78 days and only (arrested) after the video went viral? Who was protecting them?”

He blamed Singh's “evil designs” behind the crisis in the northeastern state, which is bearing the brunt of widespread clashes between Kukis and Meiteis since May 3. “You’re presiding over an ethnic cleansing. Meiteis as well as Kukis have zero confidence in you. You need to RESIGN if we are to save Manipur from your evil designs,” the TMC leader said.

“You need to be arrested and tried for crimes against humanity.”

Gokhale also questioned the CM's statement on taking “suo moto” in the incident when the First Information Report was already filed a month ago. The legal term is a phrase for “on its own motion”, meaning the power to take a case without the external party filing a formal complaint.

Singh had earlier tweeted, a “suo moto cognisance of the incident was taken after the video surfaced and the police swung into action…" Four people have been arrested in the incident since Thursday and efforts are being made to nab others, the officials said.

'Resign Biren Singh'

The Opposition parties once again firmed their demand for Singh's resignation after the crisis gained fresh traction due to the outrage over the video. During an all-party meeting chaired by Union minister Amit Shah over the issue in June, the Opposition had demanded Singh must resign for failing to control the situation as Manipur continued to burn for weeks.

After the massive public outrage across social media over the video on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, condemned the incident Thursday and said those are involved will not be spared.

However, the Opposition demanded Modi make a more “elaborate” statement on Manipur and the Parliament hold a full-fledged discussion on the crisis.

Over 150 people have been killed and several injured since ethnic violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, when a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.