Cong slams PM for ‘insensitivity’ to suffering of people of Manipur

New Delhi: With fresh violence rocking parts of Manipur, the Congress on Sunday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “insensitivity” to the suffering of people in the state.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the pain, distress, and agony of the people of Manipur continues unabated as five districts of Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal, Katching, and Bishnupur in Manipur have been rocked by violence in the last 24 hours.

Hitting out at the government, Ramesh claimed that in February 2022 the BJP “engineered a majority for itself alone” in the Assembly elections.

“But less than fifteen months later from the night of May 3, 2023 Manipur was made to burn. Hundreds of innocent men, women, and children were killed. Thousands were displaced. Places of worship were destroyed,” he said.

On June 4, 2023, the Congress leader said the Union government set up a three-member Commission of Inquiry. That Commission has been given repeated extensions to submit its report and the latest deadline given to it is November 20, 2025, he noted.

On August 1, 2023, Ramesh said the Supreme Court observed that there had been an “absolute breakdown of constitutional machinery” in the state for the past two months.

“The Union Home Minister went through the motions of visiting Manipur while the PM maintained absolute silence refusing to say anything and meet anybody from the state.

“Demands were made by the Indian National Congress for the imposition of President’s Rule to begin with. That was ignored till the INC announced that it was bringing a no-confidence motion against the CM in the assembly session beginning February 10, 2025. The BJP read the writing on the wall, got the CM to resign on the night of Feb 9, 2025, and finally imposed President’s Rule on February 13, 2025,” he said.

“President’s Rule, however, has made no difference,” Ramesh said. He claimed the Governor himself has been forced to travel from Imphal airport to his residence by helicopter. Law and order in many parts of the state remains in a state of peril, he added.

“When will the PM find the time and inclination to visit Manipur?... The PM has travelled to different parts of the world and visited numerous states of our country to do his trademark inaugurations. But he has never met with political leaders or civil society organisations from Manipur having outsourced the management of the state’s affairs to the Union Home Minister who has failed miserably,” the Congress general secretary alleged.