Does not behove Indian PM to laugh, crack jokes in Parliament when Manipur is on fire: Rahul Gandhi

Shubhadeep Choudhury

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New Delhi, August 11

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said he was “amazed” by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jovial mood yesterday in the Lok Sabha while replying to the No-Confidence motion on Manipur.

Gandhi said it does not behove the Prime Minister to laugh and crack jokes in Parliament when he was talking about a state that has been “on fire” for the past four months.

“PM spoke for 2.13 hours yesterday. He spoke about Manipur for about two minutes only toward the end. Manipur is in fires for months, People are getting killed, rapes are taking place, children are being killed,” Rahul Gandhi said.

“He (Modi) is sitting in parliament and laughing, His entire cabinet is in giggles. This to me seems completely insane. This has got to stop,” Gandhi said while addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here today.

The PM spent a long time talking about the Congress, the Opposition and made “ridiculous” remarks about the name of the Opposition alliance, Rahul Gandhi said. Gandhi said that being the Prime Minister, Modi should put “politics aside” and not speak like a “petty politician”.

“I have seen PMs from Congress party and PMs from BJP. I have seen Vajpayee, and Deve Gowda. None of them have ever done this. There is complete misunderstanding in the minds of Narendra Modiji what the the Prime Minister of India is,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi said the way Modi replied to the No-Confidence motion yesterday was an “insult to Manipur”.

Stating that the Army could bring the situation in Manipur under control in two days, the Congress leader said there are other “instruments” also available with the government to restore peace in Manipur. “But the PM refuses to stop the violence. He wants Manipur to burn. He allows Manipur to burn”, Gandhi said.

“The PM can go to Manipur, talk to communities. He can say I am your PM. It will be taken seriously but I do not see any intention”, the Congress leader said.

Reiterating that “Bharatmata” has been killed in Manipur, Gandhi said “Bharatmata” represented an idea of India where everyone lived harmoniously, peacefully with affection for each other. “It is interesting that the word Bharatmata has been expunged from the Parliament proceedings”, Gandhi said and added that the decision was an insult to the word “Bharatmata”.

Gandhi said that during his visit to Manipur sometime back to meet the riot-affected people there, he was asked not to be accompanied by any Kuki security personnel while visiting Meitei dominated areas. Similarly, he was asked to avoid taking any Meitei security personnel in Kuki areas. Gandhi said he never saw anything like this in his 19 years of political life.

“The state of Manipur has been already divided in two parts. The idea of India has been killed in Manipur. Manipur no more exists as a state”, Rahul said.