No Confidence Motion: Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi takes dig at PM for “maun vrat” on Manipur
New Delhi, Aug 8 (Agency) Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha for his “maun vrat” (silence) over ethnic clashes in Manipur and said the opposition parties have moved the No Confidence Motion in the House to give justice to the restive North Eastern state. Initiating the debate on the Motion when the House met at noon after the day’s first adjournment, Gogoi said it has been brought to break the PM’s silence on the issue. “We have three questions for PM Modi.
First, why has the PM not visited Manipur (since trouble broke out)?, second why did the PM take almost 80 days to speak on Manipur? And third, why has not the PM sacked the CM of Manipur (N Biren Singh) till date?” he said. “No Confidence Motion has been brought for the justice of Manipur. If Manipur is burning then India is burning. That’s why today we are talking about the whole of India, not just Manipur,” Gogoi said. He claimed the “double engine government” has failed in Manipur as around 150 people died, about 5000 houses were torched and 60 lakh people are living in relief camps. “Despite that the CM of the state did not establish any peace communication with people to create an atmosphere of talks among them,” said the MP from Assam’s Kaliabor constituency “We have never seen so much anger between two sections of the society. It is a matter of regret that those who talk of ‘one India’ have made ‘two Manipurs’,” he added. Supporting the Motion, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule demanded the resignation of the Manipur chief Minister arguing “cases of rioting, murder and rape number 10 thousand”. “Have we become so insensitive?” she posed.
Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Dimple Yadav, who also backed the Motion, expressed concern over the violence in Manipur. She said, “What happened in Manipur is very sensitive, but the government’s attitude is insensitive on this issue. It was a complete violation of human rights.” Union Minister and BJP MP Kiren Rijiju opposed the motion saying ethnic clashes in Manipur are not new, and such incidents happened in the past also. He said since the Narendra Modi govenrment came to power nine years back, around eight thousand people working with militant organisations have surrendered and no new militant outfit has been formed in the North Eastern states.