Manipur crisis and the Oppn’s bid to corner PM Modi

RIGHT from the start of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, the Opposition has been keen to corner Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the horrendous disrobing of two Kuki women by a Meitei mob and the violence that has scorched Manipur over the past almost three months. But the government has been adamant that the PM will not make a statement in Parliament, though it is ready for a discussion. Unwilling to be outflanked, the Opposition has resorted to the no-confidence motion, which the PM will have to answer. The motion, however, will fall flat because the BJP has more than the required numbers to defeat it.

Two questions arise: Is the Opposition really concerned about the situation in Manipur? Or is it more interested in cornering PM Modi? The Opposition does want to put the PM in a spot on Manipur after his triumphant trips to the US, the UAE and France.

Had the Opposition been serious about Manipur, it would have gone for a discussion. And cornering Modi could have waited for another day.

True to form, Prime Minister Modi has not spoken on the Manipur situation in Parliament so far. There have been many occasions and issues which demanded that the Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha and the PM should have stood up and clarified matters. PM Modi has shied away from being the parliamentarian which Atal Bihari Vajpayee was. The careers of the two men have differed widely. Vajpayee had spent decades on the Opposition benches before he became the Leader of the House and the PM.

PM Modi replies every time at the end of the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, as per custom; he answers in passing or in jest the statements by members of the Opposition during the discussion. His speeches on these occasions in Parliament have been more or less stump speeches. He seems to have shown no interest in parliamentary deliberations per se.

In July 2018, he had to reply to the no-confidence motion brought by the Telugu Desam Party, which accused the Centre of non-allocation of adequate funds to Andhra Pradesh; After the PM replied, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi walked up to his seat and hugged him, and Modi, in his reply, had much to say about it. The PM has never spoken in Parliament after any of his many foreign trips, which is what other Prime Ministers did. In Modi’s case, it was the late Sushma Swaraj who, as the Foreign Minister, made the statement in place of the PM, though she never travelled with him abroad during the first term. In the second term, the job is being done by incumbent Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.

The PM did not speak in Parliament on important issues such as demonetisation (2016) and the Chinese intrusion in east Ladakh (2020). It was Jaishankar, and later Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who made the statement on the border situation. Rajnath Singh traced the history of the undemarcated border, admitting that the situation was complicated. So, by seeking a statement by PM Modi first, the Opposition has unwittingly blocked its own path of discussion on Manipur in Parliament because he is not going to swerve from his path of silence.

The government tried to deflect the demand for a discussion on Manipur in the Rajya Sabha, with Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar reading out the notices given by several BJP members of the Upper House, demanding a discussion on violence in West Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

The BJP would like to club incidents of violence in the Opposition-ruled states to deflect criticism of mass violence in Manipur. This is a narrow-minded political tactic, which is indeed legitimate, but betrays lack of responsibility on the part of the ruling party on the Manipur situation. While acts of violence against women in Rajasthan need to be discussed, it cannot be overlooked that the atrocity against the two Kuki women had happened as part of a political disturbance and it has wider ramifications. Even when the discussion on Manipur takes place, it is evident that the BJP MPs will, without a twinge of conscience, sidestep the horrific incident by citing cases of violence against women in Rajasthan.

Will the Modi government ride out the Manipur violence? Yes, it will, like any government with the kind of majority that the BJP enjoys in the Lok Sabha. Will the Manipur folly of the government stick to it and dampen its electoral prospects in 2024? The country is in a complacent mood, and the delusion has set in that India is among the most powerful and influential countries in the world. It is lost on the middle class in India that the US, France and other western countries are wooing India because they want to use it as an anti-China prop.

It’s an aggressive attitude that is dominant, and it is felt that as a rising power, India has every right to strike a belligerent stance. The behaviour of India’s women cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur in Bangladesh is a perfect example of the mood of the country. India can afford to throw tantrums.

All that one can recall is the shameful disrobing of Draupadi by Duryodhana and Dushasana in an open darbar, though she was saved through divine intervention. The ruling BJP represents the arrogance of Duryodhana and Dushasana, and it revels in its arrogance.