Opposition I.N.D.I.A to send senior MPs or Chief Ministers to violence-hit Manipur

Opposition grouping I.N.D.I.A is planning to send a delegation of its senior MPs or Chief Ministers to Manipur, which has been hit by ethnic violence since May 3.

The move comes against the backdrop of the Opposition’s plans to corner the ruling BJP inside and outside Parliament. In the past few weeks, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and delegations of the Left and Trinamool Congress among others have visited Manipur.

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Sources said the plan is to project that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refrained from visiting the strife-torn state though he had visited the United States, Egypt, France, UAE, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Japan between May 19 and July 15.

Either a group of senior MPs or Chief Ministers of non-BJP ruled states will be sent as a delegation to Manipur. This would be a great message to the people of Manipur and a confidence-building measure, a senior leader said.

At a meeting of Parliament floor leaders of I.N.D.I.A parties chaired by Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, 15 parties that attended the deliberations decided not to go back on their demand for a statement by Modi in Parliament before the initiation of a discussion.

“There is no compromise on this. We want an immediate discussion,” a senior Opposition leader told DH.

Also Read: Filled with pain, anger: PM Modi breaks silence on Manipur violence

With the government announcing that it is ready for a short-duration discussion, the leaders said they would not agree with such a proposition, as they want an immediate discussion in the presence of the Prime Minister, who should first make a statement.

Sources said their opposition to a short-duration discussion is that a decision on the date and time for the debate would be decided in consultation with the government and it would not be “immediate”.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar has told the House that he would consult the Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and decide on the matter. However, the Opposition has insisted that the debate has to start immediately.

They have also not taken kindly to the Prime Minister’s attempt to equate the crimes in non-BJP-ruled states with that of the Manipur situation. They said the states he referred to – Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – were not facing ethnic violence and his attempt was just to politicise it.