Sonia Gandhi confronts PM Modi: Will the Manipur crisis be ignored?

Congress Parliamentary Party leader Sonia Gandhi called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the ongoing crisis in Manipur during the Lok Sabha Monsoon session, a demand she expressed in a brief exchange with the PM, according to the Congress’s Lok Sabha leader, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

The exchange occurred on the first day of the Monsoon session, an occasion traditionally marked by a round of greetings between various leaders in the Lok Sabha. As PM Narendra Modi moved among the opposition leaders’ bench, he had a brief discussion with Gandhi. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury revealed that, during this interaction, Sonia Gandhi expressed her insistence that the prime minister lead a discussion on the recent incidents of violence in the northeastern state.

Sonia Gandhi urges PM Modi to discuss ongoing Manipur unrest in Parliament. Photo courtesy of Prime Minister’s Office (GODL-India)/Wikimedia Commons.

Echoing her sentiments, PM Narendra Modi, in a media interaction before the parliamentary session, condemned the incident of women being paraded naked in Manipur, saying it was a disgrace to the Indian populace. He assured that the incident had filled him with a mixture of pain and anger, and stressed that the law would act with full force, and no guilty parties would be spared.

This discussion comes amidst the mounting tension in the Manipur hills, following the emergence of a video on May 4, depicting two tribal women being paraded naked and molested by a mob in Senapati district. This disturbing video spread on the eve of a planned protest march by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), emphasizing their dire situation. Ethnic violence has gripped Manipur since May 3, and this latest incident has intensified calls for attention and action from national leaders.