Manipur needs love and not bullets : Headline: Himanta Biswa Sarma to Rahul Gandhi

Launching a scathing attack on Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi, Assam CM Himanta Biswas Sharma on Friday said that the deployment of the Indian Army in the strife torn state of Manipur "won't be able to stop anything". 

Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that it is unbecoming of the Prime Minister to laugh and crack jokes in the House when Manipur has been "burning" for over three months. He suggested that the Indian government has the "tools" to contain the violence in their hands, insinuating at the deployment of the Indian Army, but they aren't using it. "He wants Manipur to burn, and allows it to burn", said the Wayanad MP. In tandem to this, the Assam CM said that Manipur needs "love and not bullets". Drawing inferences to the Mizoram incident of 1966, he asked if the Congress MP wants the army to gun down its own citizens. 

"Indian Airforce did that in Aizawl, they spreaded bombs and violence. Today, Rahul Gandhi is saying that Indian Army should atop the violence. That means what? They should open fire on civilians? Is it his prescription? Army will not be able to solve anything. The solution has to come from the heart, not from bullets" said the Assam CM, stating that the deployment of the Indian Army is only a temporary solution, Manipur needs love and not violence. 

Himanta Biswas Sharma was critical about the Opposition's conduct in the Lok Sabha during the 'No-Confidence' debate, saying that it "completely exposed their designs." He condemned the Opposition walking out of the Parliament during the PM's speech, when they were the ones who wanted the Prime Minister to speak on Manipur. "The intention of the opposition was not to do anything with Manipur, they wanted to disrupt the parliament. They wanted to raise a hue and cry inside the parliament. But that was not love for Manipur, that was for their vested political interest", he said. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his 2 hours 20 minutes long speech in the Parliament, spoke about Manipur for around 10 minutes. The Assam CM backed this move, heavily criticised by the Opposition and said the Prime Minister spoke from his heart, for the North East. "He also demonstrated how much affection he has for the people of northeast. We are immensely happy, opposition will not be happy. I hope that as a principal party, the opposition should listen the PM speech till last", he added.