When 750 people died in 1993, even Narsimha Rao didn’t visit Manipur: Sitharaman hits back at Opp

Sitharaman said that when a motion for President’s Rule was moved in Rajya Sabha for Manipur in February 1994, it was the Minister of State for Home P M Sayeed who responded. “Even at the peak of the violence in August 1993, it was a Minister of State for Home Rajesh Pilot, who addressed the Parliament,” she said.

There are written records of Rajya Sabha, she said, showing that while demanding President’s Rule in the violence-hit state, BJP’s Sushma Swaraj did not press for the PM’s reply or presence.

“That was how we in the Opposition respected the ruling party in sensitive matters and look at the way they go on repeating … and this despite when the violence happened, when people were in camp, honourable Home Minister Amit Shah ji went there, spent three nights and after that…Nityanand Rai, MoS, Home, stayed there for three months,” she said and asked whether the Congress should apologise for that.

Sitharaman said that then PM I K Gujral too did not visit Manipur when the state witnessed violence during his regime.

Stating that Manipur saw the worst blockade during Congress rule, Sitharaman said, “… I hope Congress doesn’t speak about Manipur as who is going and who is not.”

Participating in the discussion, Congress’s MP from Inner Manipur Dr Angomcha Bimol Akoijam spoke about the Manipur Budget proposals. He said, “It speaks of a terrible state of an economy, the debt burden that the state witnesses… Look at the revenue expenditure. Out of 61%, roughly around 45% goes to salaries and pensions. Look at the capital expenditure. It is 39%. What kind of a development project or development of the state that you can sense from these numbers?”

Akoijam said, “We have talked a lot about the Prime Minister not visiting the State. Initially, at the beginning of the crisis in 2023, I heard that the PM did not visit the state. Today, I am almost indifferent. Whether he visits the state or not, it doesn’t matter anymore. But the rest of the country should know that there is no visa issue for the Prime Minister to visit the country. He may go to Ukraine and talk about peace when his own citizens have been slaughtered and more than 60,000 people have been rendered homeless.”

Another Congress MP Alfred Kanngam S Arthur, who represents Outer Manipur (ST) constituency, described the budget as “anti-people.” “…you talk of the 60,000 who have been displaced today. All of their homes are ravaged, burnt, broken and damaged. They are all displaced. There is no reflection in the Budget for those displaced. The damage I hear, which was done by separate entities, has crossed `20,000 crore… The entire Budget is not even worth that,” he said.

TMC member Saayoni Ghosh slammed the government over the handling of Manipur violence, and said, “After 22 months of demanding, protesting, criticising and shouting, this Government is finally compelled to discuss Manipur. But under what circumstance? It is when democracy is officially dead in this State of this largest democratic country. They are forced to debate on Manipur today because the President’s‍ Rule‍ has‍ been‍ imposed‍.”

“Over 550 civil society organizations, retired bureaucrats, police officers, activists, lawyers, filmmakers, journalists, academics, writers, had to issue a public statement urging the honourable PM to speak out about the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur. But there was silence from his end,” he said.

Questioning the government’s move to impose President’s rule, Ghosh said, “This was imposed not to restore peace in Manipur but to salvage the BJP’s political reputation after months of inaction.”