Manipur sets up 2024 battle lines: Oppn lists Govt failures, ruling party its achievements

From the unresolved border with China to price rise, unemployment, the handling of the economy, misuse of investigative agencies, assault on federalism, safety of women, wrestlers’ protests, farmers’ agitation, privatisation, the Opposition parties used the Parliament grand stage to corner the government on a range of issues, clearly with the general elections in mind. The Prime Minister was not in the House during the debate.

Deputy Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, who had given notice for the no-confidence motion and initiated the discussion, was perhaps the lone speaker who spoke at length about Manipur. He also tried to counter the BJP’s nationalism plank – and the reason why the anti-BJP alliance named itself INDIA.

Regional parties like the Trinamool Congress, DMK and the Samajwadi Party focused on state specific issues even while attacking the government for failing to control the violence in Manipur, questioning the Prime Minister’s silence for over 80 days, his absence from Parliament – during the session and particularly today when the debate began – and demanding the sacking of the N Biren Singh government.

Many Opposition leaders pointed out that the Supreme Court had to step in and set up a three-judge panel as the governments had failed.

The larger theme of the Opposition attack was to puncture the BJP’s double engine government political slogan and the Centre’s failure to control the violence in Manipur where the BJP heads the government.

Gogoi asked the Prime Minister to lead an all-party delegation to Manipur and make sincere efforts to restore peace by meeting various organisations there.

He said the Prime Minister was silent because he does not like to accept his mistakes. Modi, he said, will have to admit his double engine government has failed in Manipur.

“He prefers to remain silent than accept mistakes,” he said. Quoting Martin Luther King, he said “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and added “If Manipur is burning then Bharat is burning… If Manipur is divided, the country is divided”.

“When people were gasping for breath during the second wave of Covid, the Prime Minister was seeking votes in West Bengal. When women were being assaulted in Manipur, the Prime Minister was seeking votes in Karnataka. What kind of nationalism is this that places power above the nation?” Gogoi asked.

He said it was a matter of grave concern that a government which talked about “one India” had created “two Manipurs – one living in hills and the other in the valley”.

He recalled that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited Gujarat after the 2002 communal riots. He went on to say that the Prime Minister was silent when women wrestlers were protesting on the streets, when farmers lost their lives during the agitation and Delhi was rocked by riots. He said the Prime Minister was also silent when Rahul Gandhi levelled allegations that a particular business group benefited when he accompanied him on a foreign visit.

“When we questioned the government on incursions by China, the Prime Minister remained silent. When a former Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir said he had sought protection for the soldiers in Pulwama but was turned down, the Prime Minister remained silent,” Gogoi said.

He accused the government of spreading hatred – a pet line of attack of Rahul Gandhi – to win votes, be it in Manipur, Haryana, Karnataka or Madhya Pradesh, and said “no matter how much hatred you spread, we are determined to open ‘mohabbat ki dukan’ in your ‘nafrat ka bazaar’.

His party colleague Manish Tewari said governments are assessed on five factors – national security, economic development, communal harmony, independence of institutions and foreign policy. “It is unfortunate that this government has failed on all five points in the last nine years,” he said.

Tewari asked the government to clarify if the report of the Leh Superintendent of Police that India had lost access to 26 patrolling points in Ladakh was true, and if it was true that the buffer zones created after 18 rounds of talks between India and China were all on Indian land.

The other constituents of the INDIA alliance too used Manipur and the debate as the springboard to weave a political narrative. While DMK’s T R Baalu spoke about “step-brotherly” treatment being meted out to Tamil Nadu, TMC’s Sougata Roy accused the government of trying to weaken state governments, adding that West Bengal has been a victim as “they have stopped all money for NREGA and for PM Awas Yojana”. Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav said crime against women is on the rise in Uttar Pradesh.

Clearly, elections were on everyone’s minds. Baalu spoke about lack of funds allocated for setting up an AIIMS in Tamil Nadu and said that the government had stalled the Sethusamudram project. He then went on to say that the Prime Minister may quote Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar quite often but the people of the state would not forgive him for stalling the shipping canal project.

“It was a route created by Vajpayee… the line, alignment, everything was done by Vajpayee. It was his child,” he said.

The DMK and SP spoke about attacks on minorities but many parties remained silent.

Roy said the BJP government was a government of the “heartless”. “They are sending delegations to West Bengal on any plea. But not one delegation has gone to Manipur where our brothers and sisters are dying,” he said.

“The PM opened his mouth after 80 days since the start of violence saying that his heart is full of pain and anger but he has not visited Manipur till date. Now the Supreme Court has belatedly set up a three-judge committee consisting of women judges. This is good because when the government fails, the highest court of the land has to take up the matter,” Roy said.

The government, he said, failed to control price rise and provide jobs. “It is destroying social harmony. We have seen the communal riots in Nuh and Gurugram in Haryana. They are still continuing to polarise the communities, destroying federalism,” he said. In Nuh, he said, allegations are made that only Muslim houses are being demolished. “The government is destroying federalism by sending….Governors to the states to disturb state governments as in Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Delhi,” he said.

“The government has been weakening institutions – Parliament to Election Commission. Modi never comes to attend Parliament. He has not replied to a single question in Parliament. I have seen many other Parliaments. I have never seen a man like him who as Prime Minister does not reply to a single question. He does not believe in Parliamentary democracy,” he said.

NCP’s Supriya Sule said the BJP had toppled nine state governments in nine years. She said the first word that comes to her mind when she thinks about the BJP government is “hubris”. The only achievements of the government, she said, are toppling of state governments, price rise, breaking of institutions, fall in international indices, and law and order which is alarming in Manipur.

SP’s Dimple Yadav said the NCRB data show that on an average every three hours, a woman faces physical abuse in Uttar Pradesh. “But neither the UP government nor the central government… the double engine government is not taking cognizance,” she said.

On Manipur, she said the state government could have controlled the violence in two days. “The government’s intention was not right. Even today the Government is in a deception mode.” The BJP, she alleged, is thriving on politics of hatred.

Yadav also spoke about the unresolved border dispute, high electricity rates and shortage of power supply in UP, farmers issues and failure to fill vacant posts in her state. “The OBCs, SC, ST, women and minorities are threatened every day. They feel as if they are second class citizens,” she said.

RSP MP N K Premachandaran said if the government could not maintain peace “in a small state like Manipur”, “what is the point of a double engine government”.