Congress on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not talking about Manipur in his monthly radio address 'Mann ki Baat', saying his government is "asleep at the wheel" while the state is under the throes of violence.
A video shared on social media purportedly showed a group of people staging a protest at the Singjamei area in Imphal East district by breaking radio sets. The protest was staged soon after the 'Mann Ki Baat' ended with the protesters asking why Modi had not spoken about the ongoing violence.
Even as the opposition Congress slammed Modi for his silence on the issue, BJP president J P Nadda too omitted any reference to Manipur when he addressed three public meetings at South Tripura and Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday and in Sivasagar in eastern Assam on Sunday.
Soon after the radio broadcast ended, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the address should have included "Manipur Ki Baat".
Describing the situation in Manipur as “precarious and deeply disturbing”, he said, “You (Modi) have not spoken a word. You have not chaired a single meeting. You have yet not met an all-party delegation. Looks like your government does not consider Manipur as a part of India. This is unacceptable. Your government is asleep at the wheel while the state burns.”
Kharge also asked the Prime Minister to follow 'raj dharma', recalling A B Vajpayee’s remarks to Modi on the Gujarat riots and urged him to act firmly against all those who disturbed the peace. “Restore normalcy by taking citizen groups into confidence. Allow an all-party delegation to visit the state,” he said.
Alleging that there was "one more Mann ki Baat but Maun (silent) on Manipur", Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said the Prime Minister patted himself on the back for India's great capabilities in disaster management. "What about the entirely man-made (actually self-inflicted) humanitarian disaster that is confronting Manipur," He said.
"Still no appeal for peace from him. There is a non-auditable PM-CARES Fund but does the PM even care for Manipur is the real question," he said.
Referring to the appeal by the RSS for peace in Manipur, Ramesh said the appeal has come after 45 days of unending violence and asked whether the Prime Minister has outsourced the appeal to the organisation that moulded him.
“The RSS’ well-known duplicity is in full display as its divisive ideology and polarising activities is changing the very nature of a diverse North-East, of which Manipur is one tragic example. But what of its much-celebrated former Pracharak, who now controls the administrative machinery at the Centre and in the state?... When will Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, say something, do something in Manipur? Is he only a Prachar Mantri and not Pradhan Mantri?" he added.