Breaking the silence
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: July 05, 2024 -

MAKING it to look and sound more dramatic, most media reports said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally broke his silence on the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur when he spoke about it in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday (July 3).

But for a fair assessment, one needs to understand that this is not the first time that the Prime Minister has spoken on the Manipur issue.

Prior to his Rajya Sabha address, the Prime Minister had broken his silence on the Manipur issue at least four times.

The first time was on July 20 last year, when he spoke briefly to a group of media persons outside the Parliament building referring specifically to the harrowing naked parade video that went viral on social media.

The second time was in the Lok Sabha on August 10 last year when he gave his reply to the no-confidence motion moved against his government by the opposition parties for "the poor handling of the Manipur crisis".

The third time, which is not widely known, was on August 12, two days after defeating the no-confidence motion, while addressing a BJP's Kshetriya Panchayati Raj Parishad in Kolkata through video conferencing and the fourth time was during the recent election trail, when he claimed that "timely intervention" by the Union government and the "efforts" of the BJP-led state government, resulted in a "marked improvement" in the situation in Manipur.

What was interesting in all these instances is that rather than addressing the 'real' issue, the Prime Minister wasted the opportunity by investing his time and energy on attacking the opposition parties, particularly, the Congress.

In fact, even when he reacted to the viral video of naked parade, the Prime Minister made a deliberate attempt not to single out Manipur, where his party is in power, and went on to name the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan as states where the governments must act against perpetrators of violence against women.

When Prime Minister Narendra spoke on the Manipur issue in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, he did the same thing.

Just as a Leopard can't change its spots or a dog's tail will never, be straight, the Prime Minister used the occasion to launch attack on the opposition parties, particularly the Congress party for "politicising" issue, and reiterated the commitment of his government to bring normalcy in the strife-torn state.

This was exactly what he did on August 10 last year while responding to the no-confidence motion moved against his government by the opposition parties for "the poor handling of the Manipur crisis".

In his over 2-hour-long speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke for less than 10 minutes on the Manipur issue and spent the remaining part of his speech in attacking the Congress party and finding flaws in the policies of previous UPA governments.

As there was no mention of Manipur even after 1 hour and 40 minutes of the speech, opposition leaders staged a walkout, which the Prime Minister termed as "running away" of the opposition leaders from facing the real issue.

At that time too, the Prime Minister had given the same commitment of resolving the conflict and restoring peace in Manipur, by saying, "To punish the perpetrators, both central and state governments are trying their best.

I want to assure all citizens that all our efforts are underway and peace will soon be restored. Manipur will move forward with new atma vishwas (self-confidence) towards development soon".

The fact that the Prime Minister is still talking about the commitment of his government to bring normalcy in the strife-torn state even after 14 months of outbreak of the violence and 10 months after giving the assurance of resurrecting Manipur has only amplified the failure of his government to do justice to the families of over 200 people who lost their lives and over 60,000 people rendered homeless regardless of the assertion that violence has declined and schools have reopened in most parts of the troubled state.