Manipur burning and PM Modi laughing: Rahul Gandhi calls Modi’s response in Parliament shameful

A day after Prime Minister Narendra’s response to the no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has hit back and called the violence in Manipur a result of “BJP’s divisive politics”. He reiterated that he has seen two Manipurs during his visit to the state in July this year, an experience that he called as the most shocking in his “19 years of political experience”. 

“When we went to a Kuki area, we were asked to retire our Meitei security personnel from our security details. When we went to the Meitei area, the same thing was told for Kuki personnel. Clearly Manipur has been murdered and divided into two states. A state has been murdered; Bharat Mata has been murdered in Manipur” said Rahul Gandhi. 

He stressed that the situation in Manipur has been allowed to worsen while blaming PM Modi for his silence and questioned why the prime minister has not cared to visit the strife torn state to still the confidence for unity amongst people.  

“The PM’s speech wasn’t about India or Manipur, it was about Modi himself. It seems that the PM has forgotten that a PM ceases to be a politician once they assume the constitutional post. He thus kept talking about Congress and making fun of the coalition name. I’ve seen PMs from both Congress and BJP. Even Mr. Bajpayee was not like this. It is shameful that PM Modi was seen laughing inside the parliament and BJP leaders were sloganeering”, he added. 

Rahul Gandhi without specifying, insinuated that PM Modi not visiting Manipur could be due to some other interest. While responding to Home Minister Amit Shah’s justification as why President’s rule isn’t applicable for Manipur, Gandhi asked “ Did Mr. Shah want the arms loot to happen? Does he want the violence to continue?”. He was referring to multiple instances of arms loot from state armoury by miscreants during the ongoing turmoil of over 3 months. 

PM Narendra Modi on Thursday while responding to the no-confidence motion spoke for 132 minutes, making a new record. He spoke on Manipur towards the end and appealed for peace and also assured the situation will get better and a “new dawn will happen” for the divided state. Rahul Gandhi lamented “he forgot that Manipur is burning but he spoke on congress, attacking us in his whole speech; Manipur is burning and PM along with his leaders were laughing yesterday”. He added: “I am not seeking the Army’s intervention. All I am saying is that the Army can stop this in two days. It is not my position to say which tool PM Modi will use.”