The senior Congress leader said that if PM Modi wanted, he could stop the ongoing violence in 2 days with the help of the Army
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s over 2-hour-long speech in the Lok Sabha replying to a no-confidence motion brought about by the Opposition, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the PM, instead of addressing the violence and deaths in Manipur, was cracking jokes and laughing in the Parliament as NDA legislators indulged in sloganeering.
“The Prime Minister wants Manipur to burn. I heard PM Modi speaking in Parliament. He was cracking jokes, laughing with NDA MPs sloganeering. It does not behove a prime minister,” Rahul said while addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Friday.
“I have been in politics for the last 19 years. I have been to all states. But have not seen what we witnessed in Manipur. Perhaps, I should say it now. When I went to the Meitei area, we were told not to bring any Kuki as part of our security. We were told that Kukis would be killed if there is any Kuki in the Meitei area. And a similar was the situation in the Kuki area. So, Manipur has been divided into Kuki and Meitei. Manipur does not exist as a state. This is what I said in Parliament,” the senior Congress leader added.
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Hitting out at the Prime Minister, Rahul said that he has multiple instruments in his hand to control the situation in Manipur but he is not doing it. “Instead, he is laughing in Parliament; he could have gone to Manipur, talk to the communities. When a person becomes PM, he should not speak like a petty politician. It’s tragic to watch PM Modi speak for 2 hours on the Congress and Opposition. It doesn’t do justice to his position… The only conclusion I want to draw is that the PM has tools in hand but for some reasons, he refuses to use them… There are clear reasons why PM is not going to Manipur,” Rahul said.
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.”
PM Modi, while addressing the Lok Sabha on Thursday, had accused the Congress for being for all problems in the North-East, and had assured the people of Manipur that the country was with them and the “sun of peace” would rise again in the state.
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First published on: 11-08-2023 at 15:49 IST