President’s Rule not fit for Manipur, Amit Shah explains what started the violence that has claimed “152 lives”

“I agree with the opposition that there has been violence and hatred in Manipur”, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah, one hour and seventeen minutes after he began his speech in Parliament on the second day of the No-Confidence debate on Wednesday. In the first one hour and seventeen minutes highlighted the achievements of Pm Modi government, stressing that “the no-confidence motion doesn’t reflect the larger sentiment of the people of India”. While taking a dig at the opposition, he added “I also travel across the country and no where I found any iota of no-confidence of people on Narendra Modi government”. 

Talking about Manipur amidst opposition demand for a statement by the Prime Minister, Amit Shah claimed that people are trying to politicise the crisis and that is “unfortunate”. He referred to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the strife torn state early in July. 

Home Minister claimed that in 6 years of BJP N Biren’s government in the state and till May 3, 2023 when the first incident of violence was reported at Churachandpur, there has been no incident of curfew, blockade or any act of terror in Manipur. He also emphasised on the challenges with the unfenced international border with Myanmar and added that change of power in the neighbouring country had contributed to a simmering unrest over the changing demography in Manipur. But as far as the trigger of the violence in May is concerned, Amit Shah squarely held Manipur High Court responsible for its May order allowing Meitei community’s inclusion in the SC-ST list. “The high court order had added fuel to the fire” said Shah. 

“Article 356 is not applicable for Manipur because the state government has cooperated with the Centre when the Centre changed the CS, the DGP after the spate in violence and a special security advisor. From Surat was also sent there” Amit Shah added. 

During his two hour long speech, he announced that so far 152 people have died in Manipur due to the violence and gave a breakdown as out of those 152 deaths, majority of them happened in early May and there after situation has improved for better, reflective in decrease in number of deaths in subsequent months. He added, so far 4 people have died in the month of August, 90 days since the violence began. He also confirmed that so far fourteen thousand one hundred and fifty eight arrests have been made over 1106 registered cases. 

“Such a video is shame for any civilised society. No one can ever support such a treatment to women. But some journalists had asked me as why had the video surfaced a day before the parliament session while the incident reportedly happened on May 4. I don’t wish to get into the timing but if someone had the video then it should have been shared with the police and DGP”, said Amit Shah over the videos of two tribal women who were paraded naked and allegedly gangraped. The opposition reacted sharply and questioned if the Home Ministry had no intelligence on it and Amit Shah responded in negative. 

“Why is the Prime Minister not in Parliament? We all want to appeal for peace together for Manipur but in presence of the Prime Minister” asked Congress Leader of Opposition Adhir Ranjan Choudhury in response to Amit Shah’s appeal that Lok Sabha should come together to appeal to the people of Manipur for Peace. The third and the final day of the No-Confidence debate is slated for Thursday and PM Modi is expected to speak on the Manipur crisis.