The situation of Manipur has improved but the opposition parties are politicising the violence like ‘putting fire into fuel’, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday. He was addressing the Lok Sabha during the discussion on a no-confidence motion.
Breaking the record for the longest speech in a no-confidence motion debate, Mr Shah spoke for two hours and twelve minutes in the Parliament on Wednesday.
The no-confidence motion was moved by the opposition against the BJP led government over the ongoing ethnic violence in the North Eastern Indian state of Manipur. According to Mr Shah, it is ‘politically-motivated’ to ‘mislead’ people and spread confusion.
He slammed the opposition by compiling the achievements of the Union government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the past nine years and clarified the centre”s efforts to end the violence and restore peace in Manipur.
He termed the incidents happening in Manipur as ‘shameful’, and accused the opposition politicising the situation as ‘more shameful’.
शायद कांग्रेस अपनी हिंसा और दंगों का इतिहास भूल गई है… pic.twitter.com/kj1x5HdUdG
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) August 9, 2023
The recent viral video of two Kuki tribal women, who were raped and paraded nakedly on 4 May, is a ‘blot to humanity’, said Mr Shah. He also expressed suspicion on letting out the video to the public only after three months since the incident happened, that too a day before the scheduled commencement of Parliament”s monsoon sessions.
The speech by Mr Shah was broadly divided into three parts – achievements of the government, political rebuttals and Manipur violence. And each of his claims were supported by sufficient data and details.
In Manipur, “107 people were killed in May and 30 were killed in June, 15 were killed in July. Out of the 107 people killed in May, 68 people were killed on May 3,4, and 5. What I want to say here is that violence is gradually reducing and we should not add oil to fire”, he said.
Mr Shah also assured that the government will bring peace in Manipur and politics will not be used on the issue.
He also defended the Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh as he is operating with the centre, and accused Congress MP Rahul Gandhi by saying that Mr Gandhi’s visit to Manipur was a ‘drama’.
