While Congress slammed the PM for giving only three minutes to Manipur in his two-hour long speech, the former hit back saying that HM Amit Shah had already given a comprehensive response and charged the opposition of “playing politics” on the issue, writes Amit Agnihotri
The no-confidence motion debate in Parliament turned into a war of words between PM Modi and the opposition bloc INDIA which is trying to defeat him in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The no-confidence motion was debated in the Lok Sabha from Aug 8 to 10 with both the sides levelling charges against each other. The opposition block INDIA walked out in protest against the PM’s reply in the Lok Sabha on Aug 10 after which the motion was defeated in a voice vote.
That was a foregone conclusion given the BJP’s majority in the Lok Sabha but the debate provided a chance to the opposition to showcase unity and compel the Prime Minister to speak in the House.
“This was not about numbers. We wanted the PM to come to the Parliament and speak on the ongoing crisis in Manipur. We had been urging the PM to speak in either House of Parliament and had even moved several adjournment motions so that the Manipur issue be discussed but the government was not ready for a detailed discussion but only a small discussion,” Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gourav Gogoi, who moved the no-confidence motion, said.
“Manipur has been suffering for the past three months. The PM should have visited there but instead, our leader Rahul Gandhi had to go there and appeal for peace. The people of the state need a healing touch. Manipur is a border state and affects our national security also. The BJP is in power at the Centre and in the state but still it failed to bring peace to the north-eastern state,” he said.
As the debate was on, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the Bharatiya Janata Party- led government at the Centre should quit Delhi. She made the remarks on the occasion of the Quit India Movement’s 81st anniversary. In the Lok Sabha, TMC MP Mahua Moitra slammed the Centre over the Manipur issue. “Everyone asks if not Modiji then who? After this inaction on Manipur, India will say, ‘anyone but Modi,” she said.
“We (opposition), in turn, have felt compelled to ask what about the violence in Haryana. I want to tell this House that Manipur is different and I will tell you why. The issue of Manipur is of a hate crime against a particular community where it is understood that the police personnel of one community, possibly the same community as of the chief minister, handed over women of another community to be raped and pillaged by a mob and made every attempt to prevent those women from seeking justice,” she alleged.
