New Delhi: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi Friday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his speech in Parliament the previous day, stating that the PM was “shamelessly laughing” while Manipur burnt. He also accused Modi of willingly letting violence in Manipur continue.
“Yesterday, the PM spoke for 2 hours 13 minutes in Parliament. At the end, for two minutes, he spoke about Manipur. Manipur has been burning for months. People are dying. Rapes are happening. Children are being killed. And if you might have seen it yesterday, the PM was laughing and talking. He was cracking jokes. He was laughing. Yeh unko shobha nahi deta (this does not befit him),” Gandhi said at a press conference here.
Gandhi, who was reinstated as an MP earlier this week, added, “The Prime Minister refuses to stop the fire. 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 to stop it.”
“The topic (of motion of no-confidence moved by the Opposition) wasn’t Congress or me, it was Manipur…what is happening in Manipur and why it isn’t being stopped at once… In my 19-year experience (of political life), I haven’t seen or heard anything like I did in Manipur,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi went on to explain why he had said in his speech in Parliament Wednesday that “Bharat mata (mother India) had been murdered in Manipur”. His comments were later expunged from House records. “For the first time, the words Bharat mata have been expunged from Parliament (records). This is an insult to the term,” he said.
Manipur has been in the throes of ethnic violence between the Meiteis and the Kukis since 3 May. The government in an updated status report last month, informed the Supreme Court that the violence had claimed 142 lives and displaced more than 54,000 people till 4 July.
Addressing the media Friday, Gandhi said that Manipur “is on fire and has been on fire for four months”.
Speaking of his two-day visit to Manipur last month, Rahul said when he went to Meitei areas, he was asked to leave behind any Kuki security personnel accompanying him, else they would’ve been shot. Similarly, when he wanted to visit Kuki-dominated areas, he was asked to do so without any Meitei security personnel accompanying him.
“Women and children are dying. People are being murdered. Women are being molested, raped. And the PM of India is sitting in Parliament, shamelessly laughing. A state has been decimated. It does not exist anymore. It happened because of the BJP’s politics. Divide and rule and burn. That is why, in my speech, I said Bharat mata had been murdered,” he said.
Gandhi also clarified his point about the Army being called in to control the situation in Manipur. In his speech Wednesday, he had said that the central government could deploy the Army and bring peace to Manipur in one day, but was not doing so.
On Friday, he clarified that he was not just talking about the Army but about various “tools” that the government has at its disposal. “I point out the Army, but what I mean is that the government has multiple instruments in its hands. He (the PM) is not using them,” he said.
Asked about Sansad TV not giving him enough screen time during his speech, as was alleged by the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi said Modi probably does not like to see the Wayanad MP’s face on television. “Maybe the PM doesn’t want to see my face on TV, but he’ll also talk about my videos. I can’t do much about it because they have control over the media and Sansad TV. I will do what I have to do,” he told media persons.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: Manipur CM ‘is cooperating’ — Amit Shah rules out removing Biren Singh from post