Seizing on LoP Rahul Gandhi’s first visit to Manipur, Congress to target PM Modi, turn up heat on BJP

During his day-long visit to Manipur, Gandhi will meet violence-affected people in relief camps in three places – Jiribam, Churachandpur (districts), and Moirang (Bishnupur district). He is also scheduled to meet Governor Anusuiya Uikey to discuss the crisis.

His visit to Jiribam town assumes significance as it remained largely unaffected by clashes until June this year, when a killing shattered its tenuous year-long peace.

“The Congress has repeatedly spoken about PM Modi not visiting Manipur since May last year. Now it is time for us to walk the talk, and hence, Rahul Gandhi has decided to go there for the third time since May last year. The message is clear – that our leader will do what the PM won’t,” said an All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader.

The leader claimed this would also send a message to the people that “while PM Modi is visiting foreign countries, our leader is standing with the people of a state which has been neglected despite being in turmoil for so long”.

PM Modi is going to visit Russia on July 8-9, followed by Austria on July 9-10.

Speaking to The Indian Express, the AICC’s in-charge for Manipur Girish Chodankar said: “This will be Rahul ji’s first official visit to Manipur after becoming LoP in the Lok Sabha. He has been to Hathras and Ahmedabad since – the Hathras visit was to meet victims of stampede incident and the Ahmedabad one was to meet party workers and leaders.”

“We want to show that Manipur is very much a part of India… Rahul ji‘s visit is not a political one, but just for sharing the pain of the people of Manipur. He is going there with the message of love. Wherever there is hatred, he will go with love. We are hopeful that the PM goes there too after seeing Rahul Gandhi go there for the third time since the violence started,” said Chodankar.

The Congress-led Opposition has raised the issue of Manipur crisis repeatedly in both Houses of Parliament.

In the Lok Sabha on July 2, PM Modi’s over two-hour-long reply to the debate on motion of thanks on the President’s address was disrupted by the Opposition members, who continuously raised the slogans of “Justice for Manipur” and “Bharat Jodo”.

The Manipur issue did not figure in President Droupadi Murmu’s address to both Houses of Parliament on June 27.

Underlining this, the newly-elected Congress MP from Inner Manipur, A Bimol Akoijam, on July 1, went all out to attack the Modi government for “ignoring” the state.

“Is this silence communicating to the people of the Northeast and particularly Manipur that you do not matter in the Indian State’s scheme of things?” Akoijam said, addressing the Lower House around midnight, hours after Gandhi also flagged the Manipur crisis during his speech.

On July 3, in his reply in the Rajya Sabha, PM Modi asserted that his government has been making every efforts to restore peace in Manipur. Asking the Opposition to rise above politics on the Manipur issue, the PM also said, “Some elements are adding fuel to the fire and such elements will be rejected by the people of Manipur.”

Modi also pointed out that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had visited the state and “stayed there (in Manipur) for days”. He also reminded the Congress of the turmoil faced by Manipur in 1993 when it was in power at the Centre.

The Congress rejected PM Modi’s statement, questioning his “astounding claim” that the situation in Manipur is normal”. “In actuality, the situation is still tense as the MP from Inner Manipur pointed out in the Lok Sabha on 1st July,” said AICC’s general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh.

Congress leaders say that Gandhi’s visit will also be to “thank the people of Manipur” for giving both Lok Sabha seats to the Congress. “Before the elections, Gandhi visited the state twice – even starting his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (his second Yatra) from Manipur. Now that we have won both its Lok Sabha seats, people should know that he would be with them even after polls,” said another Congress leader.

On January 14 this year, Gandhi had started the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Imphal, which concluded in Mumbai on March 18. Before launching the Yatra, Gandhi had alleged that Manipur was a victim of “the BJP and RSS’s politics of hate”.

On June 30 last year, Rahul undertook his first visit to Manipur after the ethnic violence erupted. He was there for two days and was stopped by police en-route to Churachandpur by road. He had then reached the town by helicopter in the evening.

During his campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi had spoken about the violence in Manipur at his many rallies across the country.

In the polls, Akoijam trounced the ruling BJP’s Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh in Inner Manipur by 1.09 lakh votes. In Outer Manipur, the Congress’s Alfred Kan-Ngam Arthur defeated the NDA ally NPF’s Kachui Timothy Zimik by 85,418 votes.