Even as Manipur and its people, across the ethnic divide, grapple with a sense of injustice and abandonment from both the union and state governments that have turned a blind eye for the 175th day now, the parent body of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) through its supremo (in his Dussehra speech) has tried to raise the “external forces” bogey!
Meanwhile, Member of Parliament (MP) and INC communications in charge, Jairam Ramesh has through a video on twitter today, October 25, raised five pertinent questions for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Today’s the 175th day since Manipur erupted and the social harmony in the state got devastated. The people of Manipur are asking five searching questions of the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister whose silence has been eloquent and inactivity has been masterful has to wake up! pic.twitter.com/m6hUJk3pAB
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 24, 2023
“Today is the 175th day since Manipur erupted and the social harmony in the state was devastated. The people of Manipur are asking five searching questions of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister whose silence has been eloquent and inactivity has been masterful has to wake up!
“There have been 175 days since Manipur erupted and how many in the state got devastated. The pain and the agony of the people of Manipur continues.
“They continue to ask five basic questions. These are questions of course not just of the people of Manipur but all people across the country, interested in rebuilding trust, rebuilding the way, starting the process of reconciliation in those beautiful states.
“Question One. The first question, why has the Prime Minister refused to meet the Chief Minister of our State? Why has the Prime Minister refused to meet elected representatives from the state? Most of whom belong to his party or his allies?
“Question Two. Second, why has the Prime Minister who pontificates on all manner of topics under the sun, why has he spoken for less than 5 minutes on the Manipur crisis in the last 175 days?. And that too he spoke in parliament as a result of immense pressure brought on him by the opposition.
“Question Three. Why has the Prime Minister continued not to meet the Union Minister of State of External Affairs who were represented in Manipur in the Lok Sabha? A member of his own Council of Minister, he has not met!!
“Question Four. Fourth question, why has the Prime Minister who loves to travel across India, across the globe, why has he not found time, why has he not found it appropriate to visit Manipur, even for a few minutes as an expression of his concern?
“Question Five. And fifth, why has the Chief Minister of the state been allowed to continue (in office) when, across the society in Manipur people realise that normalcy, harmony, trust, cannot be rebuilt with this Chief Minister! But this Chief Minister continues (in power) as if nothing has happened!
“These are five searching questions the people are asking, The Prime Minister cannot evade his responsibility, cannot evade accountability by continuing to ignore these questions.
“Manipur has been damaged immiscible and the people of Manipur, the people of North-East have seen how the divisive politics of the BJP, how the tall claims of the so-called double engine sarkaar has resulted in so much of pains, so much of misery, so much of distress for the people belonging to different communities.
So at some point of time, the Prime Minister whose silence has been eloquent and whose inactivity has been masterful has to wake up!
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