The prime minister’s two-hour-long Lok Sabha speech which supposedly meant to address the issue of Manipur but instead turned into an age-old political blame game with no accountability of the crimes perpetrated and no discussion on the solutions going forward. In the speech, we recalled all the shortcomings of the INC and the atrocities committed during the emergency because that is somehow supposed to be connected to the current developments.
Charging the Opposition with “playing politics” over the Manipur situation, he backed the efforts of the state government and said, “The Centre is working hard to give the harshest punishment to those involved in crimes in Manipur, people of Manipur – mothers, sisters, daughters – the country is with you. Together, we will face this difficulty and ensure peace returns. I promise the people of Manipur that the state will once again undertake the development journey.”
PM Modi referred to the opposition alliance mostly as “ghamandiya” to claim the front as power-hungry and arrogant. “Yeh ghamandiya gathbandhan parivaarvaad ki rajniti ka sabse bada pratibimb hai (This ghamandiya alliance is the biggest reflection of dynasty politics),” the prime minister said.
If the opposition MPs were shouting “Modani” (A clever ship name for Modi and Adani) during the prime minister’s last two speeches in parliament, they were shouting “Manipur, Manipur” as Modi spoke on Thursday. The opposition eventually walked out of the House in protest after Modi hadn’t touched upon the Manipur issue nearly one and half hours into his speech.
After the opposition left, the prime minister while holding the Congress responsible for being the origin of all the problems in the north-east, “answered the people of Manipur that the country was with them and the ‘sun of peace’ would rise again in the state”.
The Prime Minister in his speech said that the country stands with Manipur and the Centre and state governments are working together to restore peace in the region. His actual words were, the “root cause of Manipur issue is the previous policies brought by the United Progressive Alliance governments. We are bringing a change here and it was bound to see conflicts. But, I assure all the people of this country that Manipur is ‘jigar ka tukda’ and very soon there will be peace in the state.”
Incidents of rape, torture, murder and arson have become much too common from the prime ministers ‘jigar ka tukda’. If an effective action plan is not formulated soon, we might entirely lose a state whose entire population is currently living in dire conditions of refugee camps and see no hope of the fires of violence dying anytime soon. The chief ministers divisive and naïve racially charged statements have bared their fangs in the form of an ethnic distrust so huge it has engulfed Manipur in a civil war like situation. Although no stranger to violence the people of Manipur have currently lost all hope of ever going back to the time before 3rd May when their whole lives got uprooted.
Read more about his speech on thewire.in
Editorial by Harsha Chhawchharia, Stuti Shah
