A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on the no-confidence motion in Parliament, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday criticised him saying that instead of talking about the violence in Manipur, he was cracking jokes and laughing while his party leaders indulged in sloganeering.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Rahul Gandhi said: “The Prime Minister wants Manipur to burn. I heard him speaking in the Parliament laughing, joking and his leaders sloganeering. The Prime Minister seems to have forgotten that the state of Manipur is on fire, and has been on fire for four months.
“This does not behove a Prime Minister as women and children are dying over there, people are being murdered, women are being molested, are being raped and the Prime Minister sitting in the middle of the Parliament laughing. This is not about Rahul Gandhi, this is not about the Congress Party, this is not about the Opposition parties, this is about India,” he said.
The Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Wayanad said that it is about the country’s state which has been decimated, and it is happening because of the politics of the BJP.
Slamming the BJP, he accused it of indulging in the politics of divide and rule and burn.
“Divide, rule and burn. That is why in my speech I said ‘Bharat Mata’ has been murdered in Manipur. And for the first time the words ‘Bharat Mata’ have been expunged from the Parliament proceedings. It’s an insult to those words, whatever was said, was that wrong? I have said ‘Bharat Mata’ which is an idea, which is the idea of India, where everybody lives peacefully, harmoniously and with affection, has been killed in Manipur, it’s a fact,” he said referring to his words that he spoke in Parliament on Wednesday expunged from the records.
“So, the word (Bharat Mata) itself cannot be spoken by the people of India; we cannot say ‘Bharat Mata’ in Parliament,” he said.
He also said that he has been in politics for the last 19 years and have been to all states.
“But I 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 convoy. We were told that they 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,” Rahul Gandhi said.
He further said that “when we went there, the security forces told us ‘we have never seen anything like this’ before”.
“That is why, I said ‘Manipur has been murdered by the BJP’ and the idea of India has been murdered by the BJP in Manipur. I was not speaking metaphorically; I was speaking literally,” he said.
He also opined that it will take the Indian Army two days to put an end to the incidents of violence in Manipur.
“The Prime Minister refuses to stop the fight. He wants Manipur to burn, he allows Manipur to burn because if he did want it to stop, there are tools in the hands of the Indian government that can stop it, immediately, I know. I have full faith in our army, I know and every Indian citizen knows, that if the Indian Army is told, please put an end to this, it will stop (violence) immediately,” the Congress leader said.
Taking a jibe at the Prime Minister for not visiting Manipur even after 90 days, he said: “There are reasons for the Prime Minister not being able to go to Manipur. I am aware of those reasons. I don’t want to say them publicly, but there are clear reasons as to why the Prime Minister is not going? That is why, we wanted the Prime Minister to speak in Parliament, that is why we wanted Manipur to be an agenda in the Parliament. He is our representative, he is my representative, he is a representative of all of us.”
He also referred to the former prime ministers of the Congress and the BJP and said: “I have seen Prime Ministers from the BJP, I have seen Atal Bihari Vajpayee, I have seen HD Deve Gowda, none of them had ever done this, this is complete misunderstanding in the mind of PM Modi, what the Prime Minister of India is.”
To a question about what are the steps his party would take, the Congress leader said: “I don’t say, the only conclusion I can do all because the Prime Minister has tools in his hand that can stem out fire in the Manipur, certainly within 3 or 4 days. India is burning in Manipur. Let’s rebuild it quickly.”
