PM’s silence on Manipur is not right, says Inner Manipur MP Akoijam

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha member A Bimol Akoijam has expressed anguish over the absence of any reference to ethnic violence-hit Manipur in Speaker Droupadi Murmu’s address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament.

In a fiery speech delivered late Monday night, the new Congress member from interior Manipur drew attention to the 60,000 people living in deplorable conditions in relief camps in the northeastern state for the past year.

Akoijam, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, was the last to speak in the Lok Sabha on Monday and spoke around midnight.

“Pain, anger pushed a nobody like me to be a part of this temple of democracy, by defeating the BJP cabinet minister. Think of the pain. I will keep quiet the moment the Prime Minister opens his mouth and the nationalist party says that Manipur is a part of India and we care about the people of this state,” said Akoijam, who defeated Union minister Rajkumar Ranjan Singh in the last elections.

He said that every inch of Manipur was covered by the central armed forces, but 60,000 people were left homeless and thousands of villages were destroyed.

“Our Prime Minister remains silent, does not even utter a word, and the President’s speech did not mention this. This silence is not normal,” Mr Akoijam said in his speech.

He said more than 200 people were killed and a civil war situation ensued, with armed individuals roaming, fighting among themselves and defending their villages, while the Indian state remained a mute spectator to the tragedy for a year.

“Does this silence indicate to the people of the Northeast and particularly Manipur that they have no importance in the scheme of the Indian state?” Akoijam asked.

He said the absence of the Manipur crisis in the President’s speech in Parliament on Friday was a reminder of the “rashtra chetana” (national consciousness) that excludes people.

“Today we celebrate a day when we implement new criminal laws, ostensibly to reject the colonial legacy. This continuity (of colonialism) is manifested by neglecting the tragedy of a state that is the 19th state of the Union,” the Congressman said, referring to the three criminal justice laws that came into force on July 1.

Akoijam said it was “sad to see a nationalist party like the BJP remaining silent on the Manipur tragedy”.

“Keep your hands on your heart and think of the homeless, the mothers and the widows. Think of them and then talk about nationalism,” he said.