Close to midnight, House empty, Congress Manipur MP seeks to rouse Modi govt from ‘silence’

Days after the Manipur crisis failed to find a place in the President’s address to Parliament, newly elected Inner Manipur MP A Bimol Akoijam late Monday came all guns blazing against the BJP-led NDA government for “ignoring” the strife-torn state.

“Is this silence communicating to the people of the Northeast and particularly Manipur that you do not matter in the Indian State’s scheme of things?” Akoijam said, addressing the Lok Sabha around midnight, after a day marked by disruptions over Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s speech.

Drawing the members’ attention to the absence of the Manipur crisis in President Droupadi Murmu’s address to Parliament on June 27, theInner Manipur MP said: “This is not a simple absence. It is a reminder of the ‘rashtra chetana (national consciousness)’ which excludes people. You must realise that more than 60,000 people are languishing in relief camps in wretched conditions for the last one year… 60,000 people homeless is not a joke. Over 200 people have died. There has been a civil war-like situation where people, armed to the teeth, are roaming around and fighting each other, defending their villages and the Indian State is a mute spectator to this tragedy for one year.”

Akoijam also said he was “amazed” at being allotted a slot close to midnight for his address, when there was hardly anyone present in the House, including from the Congress ranks.

Reminding that “every square centimetre of the state is covered by Central forces”, Akoijam questioned how 60,000 people had been rendered homeless and thousands of villages destroyed despite this. “Yet our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) remains mute. Not even a word. The Presidential address did not mention that (crisis). It is a reminder of