Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged India’s support to the people in trouble-torn Manipur. "India stands with Manipur. He responded to the discussion of the no-trust resolution moved against the government by stating, "This House stands with Manipur.”
"We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with women of Manipur. The entire House stands with you. I am also speaking for those who are not present here. We will work together to find a solution. Manipur will soon see the dawn of peace and we would like to assure the people that the state would be back on the path of progress and we would spare no effort to ensure it.”
The opposition's motion to "force Modi to break his silence on Manipur" was defeated by a voice vote following Modi's hard hitting speech, the longest by any prime minister, in which he refuted the accusation that he had neglected the state and the northeastern region and provided evidence from history and statistics to show that the boot was on the other leg.
Rejecting the charge of failure in Manipur and of refusal to face Parliament, the PM said the government was always ready for a frank conversation on the issue. He said the home minister had written to the Speaker even before the opposition decided to disrupt the proceedings, expressing government's readiness to have the debate, adding that it was the opposition which did not want facts to come out. "Their pain is selective, their sensitivities are selective. Their concern begins and ends with politics. They cannot think of humanity. They are obsessed with politics and are not concerned with the country and its problems,” said the PM.
The opposition heckled him through the speech, which at 2 hours and 13 minutes was a minute longer than former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri's as well as the one rendered by the home minister Amit Shah earlier.
Rahul: You killed Bharat Mata in Manipur
Rahul Gandhi argued that the government was destroying "Bharat Mata" and calling members of the ruling party "traitors" on the second day of the debate on the no-confidence motion brought forth by the Congress. This drew a stern retort from Shah and Smriti Irani, who urged the former Congress leader not to politicise the ethnic conflict in Manipur.
“You are throwing kerosene in the entire country. You sprinkled kerosene in Manipur and then lit a spark,” the Congress MP said, adding that the same was happening in Haryana as well. The PM was not in the House as Rahul spoke.
As treasury bench members heckled Rahul for his remarks and even Speaker Om Birla advised restraint, the former Congress chief said that his “one mother” – Sonia Gandhi – was sitting in the House while his “second mother” had suffered in Manipur.
The Congress leader said that the government has divided Manipur into two during his 37-minute address, which was his first since being restored following the SC's stay of his conviction in a defamation case. A belligerent Shah attacked Congress on a number of topics, including frauds that occurred under the UPA government, and urged the opposition to stop politicising the Manipur violence hours after Rahul spoke at full throttle.
The opposition charge was led by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of Congress and TMC’s Mahua Moitra, with the latter saying that it was not aimed at bringing down anything but to resurrect India’s “founding principles”. Chowdhury said it was time for polarisation to quit India.
Later, Chowdhury was suspended from the House for “repeated misconduct” pending investigation by the privileges committee. Chowdhury said the opposition had no choice as it wanted to ensure PM Modi’s presence in the House.