132 minutes of speech, less than 13 minutes on Manipur; PM Modi assures “India is with the people of Manipur”

Prime Minister Modi started speaking at 5.08pm on the floor of the Parliament on Thursday as a response to the no-confidence motion brought by Opposition India alliance. Opposition had been demanding for PM’s statement on the ongoing turmoil in Manipur. PM Modi spoke at length for 140 minutes.

“Home minister Amit Shah spoke about Manipur inside the parliament on Wednesday, spoke for 2 hours very patiently and expressed the deep concern of the nation. The idea was to convey a message of confidence to Manipur. The idea was to try to find a way forward for Manipur. But they wanted to play politics”, these were the first comments on Manipur by the PM, 100 minutes into his speech.

PM Modi, like the home minister blamed the court order in Manipur that had triggered violence in the state. “What happens in the court is known to all. Violence began after the order. Many people have suffered. The women have been victims of shameful violations. The culprits will be given stringent punishment, that’s the effort of both Central and State government of Manipur” said PM Modi while assuring the nation that the situation in Manipur is improving and he added that “there will be a new dawn in Manipur very soon”.

He urged the people of Manipur to maintain peace and stressed that “the nation and parliament, both are with them”. The opposition MPs from India alliance bloc had walked out of the parliament by then, 90 minutes after PM started speaking and 10 minutes before PM started speaking on Manipur. The rest of the PM speech witnessed protest and sloganeering from the opposition, demanding him to speak on Manipur, the issue that opposition claims had compelled them to bring the no-confidence motion in the first place.

After four minutes of speaking on Manipur, PM Modi then launched his attack, yet again, on Congress, which otherwise had also been the dominant factor in his overall speech, accused the grand old party for the “fault lines” in the North Eastern states, where Congress had been in power for decades before BJP had replaced them, either alone or in alliance with others.

He particularly responded to Rahul Gandhi’s jibe on Wednesday that “India has been murdered in Manipur”, called it a shameful and hurtful remark. “This has pained all of us. These people always pray death for Mother India”, responded PM Modi.

Towards the end, he assured that “Peace will be established in Manipur”, while claiming politics over the crisis shouldn’t be avoided.

Opposition claims, the speech was less on Manipur and more to bolster his “poll campaign for 2024 LokSabha elections”.