PM refusing to resolve Manipur crisis: Rahul

Gandhi claimed that the government has options but it is not using them to stop the ethnic violence in Manipur that has already claimed 152 lives

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government wants Manipur to “continue to burn” because it is not using “instruments” at its disposal to bring normalcy back in the violence-torn border state.

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Addressing a press conference a day after the Prime Minister replied to the debate on no-confidence motion — which was defeated in the Lok Sabha — Gandhi said, “It will take the Indian Army two days to put an end to the nonsense that is going on in Manipur. The Prime Minister refuses to stop the fight. He wants Manipur to burn, he allows Manipur to burn because if he did want it to stop, there are tools in the hands of the Indian government that can stop it, immediately, I know. I have full faith in our army, I know and every Indian citizen knows, that if the Indian Army is told, please put an end to this, it will stop (violence) immediately.”

The Congress, and other opposition parties that are part of the INDIA grouping, walked out 97 minutes into the PM’s 133 minute speech, just before he started speaking on Manipur. The alliance has said it brought about the no-confidence motion to force the Prime Minister to speak on the issue.

Gandhi claimed that the government has options but it is not using them to stop the ethnic violence in Manipur that has already claimed 152 lives.

“I am not asking for anything, please don’t misunderstand. It is not my place to decide which tool the Prime Minister can use, which instrument he should use. I am pointing out that there are multiple instruments that the Prime Minister has at his disposal and he is not using a single one,” he said.

In his intervention in the no-confidence debate, Gandhi had asked why the government is reluctant to deploy the army in Manipur.

During the debate, Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday gave an elaborate reply on Manipur and cited data to show how the violence is declining. “152 people have died so far. In May alone, 107 deaths occurred that included 68 deaths in the first three days. In June 30 people died, In July 15 and in August, 4 people have died,” Shah told the Lok Sabha.

Speaking on the Prime Minister’s speech, Gandhi said: “The PM was cracking jokes and smiling even as Manipur is on fire for months.PM can’t go to Manipur, at least he should have spoken about Manipur at length.”

Army presence in North-East states has often been a hotly debated issue. Shah has spoken in Parliament on how the area where the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Afspa) is applicable has been reduced in the Northeast. Gandhi, however argued that the current situation in Manipur is unparalleled.

Recalling his own visit to the state, Gandhi said, “I have been to all the states. We go when there are floods, droughts or even tsunami. But I have never seen anything like this before.”

“When I was going to a Meitei area, they said, ‘you are most welcome. We love you but don’t bring any Kuki as a part of your security otherwise we will kill them’. Similarly, the Kuki warned us against bringing Meitei security guards.”

He also defended his comments in the Lok Sabha. “Manipur has been decimated. Manipur doesn’t exist as a state. A state requires control and authority, which have disappeared in Manipur. When I went there, central security forces told me they have not seen anything like this before. That’s why I said Manipur has been murdered by the BJP,” Gandhi added.

He also criticised the Prime Minister for not focusing adequately on Manipur in his speech. “Watching the Prime Minister spend two hours talking about the Congress, talking about the Opposition, making ridiculous remarks about the name, this really does not do justice to an Indian Prime Minister. I have seen Prime Ministers from the Congress Party, I have seen Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, I have seen Mr. Deve Gowda, none of them had ever done this, there is complete misunderstanding in the mind of Narendra Modi ji on what the Prime Minister of India is?”

Gandhi, who was at the helm of the Congress party between 2017 and 2019, maintained that Modi should have used his speech to send a message to the people of Manipur. “When [someone] becomes Prime Minister, he ceases to be a politician; he becomes the representative of the voice of this country. He is our representative, he is my representative, he is all our representative.”

While Modi also used his speech to set the tone for the 2024 elections — he claimed he would return for a third term — Gandhi insisted that the issue was not about who would be PM in 2024. “It was about Manipur.” He also rejected Shah’s defence of the Manipur CM Biren Singh and pointed out that arms were looted under latter’s rule.

A part of Gandhi’s speech was expunged and a number of Opposition leaders, including Congress’s Lok Sabha floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, were suspended. Gandhi claimed that it doesn’t matter if leaders come or go. “For the first time Bharat Mata has been expunged. So, no one can utter the word Bharat Mata in Parliament. ”

The home minister in his reply said the Centre did 16 video conferences, sent 36,000 security forces, changed the chief secretary, DGP and the security adviser by May 4 evening. “ In 28 days, the railways reached with supplies. We brought trucks from Assam in this difficult situation and there was no price rise,” said Shah.

Union minister Anurag Thakur hit back at Gandhi’s comments on Friday.

“When he could not make his point in the House, he tried to hurl the same abuses from the streets. The use of indecent language and lies has become a sort of habit for Congress leaders... How can any son of Bharat Mata talk of her being murdered... He does not care about Manipur or women. Rahul Gandhi’s only concern is how he can remain in the headlines,” Thakur told reporters.