WHY DID I.N.D.I.A. ALLOW MANIPUR TO SINK IN A POLITICAL TURBULENCE?

At the end of the much-hyped NoTrust motion… What did Manipur achieve? The Opposition brought the NoTrust motion to press Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to speak about the Manipur issue in Parliament.

A no-confidence motion is a parliamentary tool used by the Opposition to express its lack of confidence in the government. However, did politicians even care what Manipuris (both the Meiteis and Kukis) may have felt if they watched the Monsoon session and especially the No-Trust Motion when it was actually meant to discuss and deliberate the (literally) burning issues of the region.

However, given the reality of a session full of reported histrionics and rhetoric, the run-up to the No-Trust was the highlight and this had very little actual impact on the real Ground Zero affair of Manipur. The rape versus rape tussle also diluted the matter to a great extent… and the least said about the comparison of the scale violence in Manipur over the past decades and now actually did not help much.

The no-confidence motion brought by the Opposition missed the opportunity to provide a balm for the miffed Manipuris and also did the proceedings send a clear message to the shattered common people of the region? Also, nothing much was discussed on the Chief Minister N. Biren Singh who still continues to be in office.

Political analysts feel the hype created by the Opposition was wasted as they did not use the important parliamentary tool of no-confidence motion to force a detailed discussion on the strife-torn Manipur, which has been burning now for the last almost four months. The Opposition, it is felt, lost an opportunity to make the government announce a decisive plan of action to put an end to the violence and take a concrete and the much-expected action to bring truce or at least an end to the strife.

In all the action in the Sansad, it was clearly seen that the Manipur issue was slipping away in the quicksand of the high-decibel speeches and some of which even sounded like a preparatory scripts for the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha.

The treasury bench and the Opposition were hugely indulged in blame games and talked more about issues of other topics and at times Manipur took a back seat. The raging violence in the state and deepening divide between the Meiteis and Kukis—has only been adding more fuel to the volatility of Manipur.

Eventually, it looked like the Opposition threw the match away and allowed the ruling NDA prepare its stage for the 2024 Lok Sabha right from the heart of the Sansad and the Opposition actually cannot blame anyone else but themselves for this!

Their eventual walkout watered out the whole purpose of the No-Trust. The no-confidence motion, the PM said, spoke not of the lack of confidence of the Opposition in the government, but about the lack of trust of discredited nay-sayers in the India story. Parties which were repeatedly rejected by the voters and blinded by corruption and arrogance, eclipsed by pessimism, the preeminence of dynasty and policies of appeasement, could not see India’s “samarthya”. “They failed to recognise”, PM said, that for the nation this is a time of possibilities, “chaaron taraf sambhavnaein hi sambhavnaein”. He targeted the Congress and INDIA bloc as the “ghamandiya gathbandhan.

Finally, it is being seen as a situation where the (already) fragmented(?) Opposition – which, despite its new-found cohesivity is yet to bridge the gap between its regional partners – and could not keep their entire focus on Manipur and force the government in Parliament. When time came, it seemed that the Opposition became a soft target.

In the entire process of the session, nothing much was demanded in terms of stern action against Chief Minister N Biren Singh even as the people of Manipur and the entire country expected, especially the Opposition going hammer and tongs over the immediate sacking of the CM. But there was neither any indication of action against the Chief Minister nor an action plan to restore peace.

Around 6.45 pm, more than halfway through his over two hours-long speech, the PM addressed the people of Manipur: “I want to say to its people, to its mothers and daughters, desh aapke saath hai, sadan aapke saath hai… together we will find a solution”.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Robin Roy The writer is Senior Journalist and former Managing Editor, First India