No peace in Manipur at gunpoint, Opposition MPs urge PM Modi to visit state

Initiating a discussion on the supplementary demands for grants, excess grants and the Manipur budget, he asserted that peace cannot be restored in the northeastern state at the barrel of gun and only a political solution was the way out.

New Delhi: Opposition on Tuesday questioned the Union government's handling of the situation in Manipur with Congress insisting that peace cannot be enforced through the barrel of gun while taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he "does not need a visa" to visit the ethnic violence-hit north-eastern state.

Participating in the joint debate on supplementary demands for grants and Manipur budget, the MPs found fault with the allocations in the state budget as it "did not reflect" the situation on the ground where hundreds were killed and around 60,000 people rendered homeless. The Manipur Budget was tabled in Parliament on Monday, as the state is under President's rule.

Congress Inner Manipur MP A Bimal Akoijam said MPs have spoken a lot about the prime minister not visiting the state and that he was initially hurt about it.

"Today I am almost indifferent to whether he visits or not and it doesn't matter anymore. But the rest of the country should know that there is no visa issue for the Prime Minister to visit Manipur. He may go to Ukraine and talk about peace and his own citizens are being slaughtered and more than 60,000 people are rendered homeless," he said.

He claimed that this can be done only by those who swear by pseudo-nationalism and who have a peculiar idea of nationalism that thrives on excluding people. "You have witnessed a crisis for 21 months. Does the budget reflect it?...We are asking for additional resources from the federal government. We do not get anything," he said.

Alleging that Manipur is not given the attention it deserves on financial terms, he claimed that if it was Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, it would have been reflected in the budget. He said Manipur is prone to floods, but there is no allocation to address it when it had earlier allocated Rs 11,500 crore to Bihar on this count.

Outer Manipur MP Alfred KS Arthur said building the nation includes building Manipur and "If you don't want to build Manipur, then you do not have no right to govern Manipur". He described the Budget as "anti-people" and does not reflect the concerns of 60,000 displaced people or the damages to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore.

Initiating the debate earlier, Congress Deputy Leader Gaurav Gogoi said, peace cannot be restored in Manipur at the barrel of gun and only a political solution was the way out. He said Modi should visit Manipur and Home Minister Amit Shah should uphold 'raj dharma'.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman objected to Gogoi's remarks on the absence of the prime minister from the House when important matters were being discussed and said she was happy to hear from the Congress leader that they respect Modi after making disparaging remarks earlier. Gogoi hit back saying the finance minister should listen to Modi's last speech where he attacked former prime ministers.

Samajwadi Party's Neeraj Maurya said, "The Prime Minister has gone to Mauritius, he should visit Manipur also." Modi is on an official visit to Mauritius from Tuesday.