Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants Manipur to burn and that is why he isn’t using the instruments under his control to contain the violence, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged on Friday.
Mr. Gandhi said it doesn’t behove the Prime Minister to laugh and crack jokes in Parliament when Manipur has been burning for the past four months.
“Women and children are dying over there, people are being murdered, women are being molested, raped and the Prime Minister of India sitting in the middle of the Parliament shamelessly laughing. This is not about Rahul Gandhi, this is not about the Congress party, this is not about the Opposition parties this is about India,” he said.
The Congress leader made these remarks while addressing a press conference at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters a day after Mr. Modi replied to the no-confidence motion against his government, that was rejected by a voice vote.
Mr. Gandhi reiterated the point he made in his Parliament speech that the Indian Army can bring peace but the Modi government was not deploying them effectively.
“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....” Mr. Gandhi said, adding if Mr. Modi was serious.
Repeating the comments that were expunged from Parliament records, Mr. Gandhi said that he didn’t use metaphorically the statement that Bharat Mata has been “murdered” in Manipur as, for the first time in his 19 years in politics, he had been told that if he takes a person from one community in his security detail to the area of the other community, they will shoot the person.
He said when he went to a Meitei area, they welcomed him but made it clear that any security personnel from the Kuki community will be killed; and exactly the same sentiments were expressed about Meiteis when he wanted to visit Kuki areas.
“I have never heard in my entire career, never seen, never been told anywhere that if you take this person as a security officer with you, we will put a bullet in his heart. I have never heard it, and I heard it twice in Manipur. That means there is no dialogue in Manipur, there is pure violence taking place,” Mr. Gandhi told The Hindu in response to a question on the government’s claim that BJP wants to resolve the conflict through dialogue.
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“The first step is to stop the violence, put an end to it. I point out the Army, but, what I mean is that the Prime Minister has multiple instruments in his hands. He is not using them and the State been burning for four months, he is doing nothing and laughing,” he added.
The Congress leader asserted that when a person becomes the Prime Minister, he ceases to be a politician and should become the representative of the voice of the people.
“He is our representative, he is my representative and watching the Prime Minister spend two hours talking about the Congress, talking about the Opposition, making ridiculous remarks about the name [of the Opposition alliance], this really does not do justice to an Indian Prime Minister,” he said.
