Modi's silence allowed violence to persist: Opposition
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, July 20 2023:
While condemning the heinous crime of parading naked two women by a mob that reportedly took place on May 4, leaders of 10 opposition political parties contended that stoic silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi allowed the violence to continue in the state for nearly three months.
Addressing a press meet at Manipur Press Club here on Thursday, JD-U chief spokesperson Nimaichand Luwang said that the ongoing crisis in the state has crossed two and half month and all this time, people in both hills and valley had been enduring untold hardships.
The opposition parties have been raising the issue since the beginning of the conflict and even tried meeting the Prime Minister for his intervention to restore peace.
However, the Prime Minister refused to meet them and he chose to remain silent over the matter.
It was his silence that allowed the violence to continue in the state, he alleged.
Dr Nimaichand also noted that after remaining silent for 77 days, PM Modi spoke about the Manipur violence on the viral video of parading naked the two women and the video created uproar across the country.
The 10 opposition parties also strongly condemned the incident and prayed that such incidents never happen again.
At the same time,
there might be several such incidents which are being kept under wrap, he opined.
As per report collected by the parties, the incident took place in an area under Nongpok Sekmai police station on May 4 and a complaint was filed at saikul PS on May 18 .
Saikul PS transferred the complaint on June 21, after which the video went viral only on July 19.Only after the video went viral, PM Modi spoke on Manipur violence, he said while questioning if the PM was waiting for such crimes to surface so that he could speak.
PM Modi as well as chief minister N Biren has stated that none of the perpetrators would be spared.
However, the opposition parties would like to ask what the government has been doing all this while.
He said that Manipur has become a failed and lawless state, and CM Biren should take the responsibility for this.
The spokespersons also termed the silence of PM Modi and breaking the silence when a debate on the crisis became inevitable in the parliament as testimony of step-motherly treatment.
While pointing out that people of Manipur are also demanding a special session of the state legislative assembly, he said that the first and foremost responsibility of the government is to stop the violence.
Rehabilitation, resettlement and compensation should come latter and all these should be discussed in the assembly session, he stressed.
Nimaichand also slammed ruling MLAs for their guarded comment on the Manipur issue and emphasised that as the lawmakers they should not waste their time in visiting relief camps but use their resources to resolve the crisis and restore peace.
He also said that PM Narendra Modi, union home minister Amit Shah and CM Biren shall bear responsibility of the crisis as they have miserably failed to control the situation.
INDIA, the alliance of 26 opposition parties, will not remain silent but pursue the matter till the crisis is controlled, peace is restored and justice is served, he added.
Leaders of all the 10 opposition parties, namely CPI, CPI-M, JD-U, AIFB, Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), AAP, AITC, NCP, RSP, also attended the press conference.