Priyanka slams PM Modi over Manipur crisis, asks govt to take concrete steps for peace

New Delhi: A day after four people were gunned down in Manipur, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the situation there and urged the government to take 'concrete steps' for stability and peace by talking to all stakeholders in the northeastern state.

Four villagers were gunned down by unidentified assailants in minority-dominated Lilong Chingjao area in Manipur's Thoubal district.

"Four people were killed in Manipur, many people are injured, there is curfew in many districts. The people of Manipur have been facing murder, violence and destruction for eight months. When will this trend stop?' Priyanka Gandhi said in her post on X.

A joint delegation of leaders of all the parties from Manipur had come to Delhi and sought time to meet the prime minister but till date he has not given time, she claimed.

"Neither he (PM Modi) went to Manipur, nor talked about Manipur, nor replied in Parliament, nor took any action. Is this the leadership that Manipur needs, or is the power of advertisements enough to become great!," the Congress general secretary said.

"The government should now, without any delay, start taking concrete steps to bring stability and peace by talking to all stakeholders in Manipur, taking them into confidence," she said.

The violence in Manipur comes days ahead of the Congress' 'Bharat Nyay Yatra' which is scheduled to start from the state on January 14 and conclude in Mumbai in March.

Manipur descended into chaos and untrammelled violence in May over a high court order directing the state government to consider including the non-tribal Meitei community in the list of Scheduled Tribes.

This order led to rampant ethnic clashes between the tribal Kuki and non-tribal Meitei communities. More than 180 people have been killed and several hundred others injured since ethnic violence first broke out in the state on May 3 when a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the majority Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe status.