PM has washed his hands off Manipur: Cong's dig over Modi's foreign visit

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his visit to Japan and China, saying the long-suffering people of Manipur are still awaiting his visit but he has "simply washed his hands off" the state.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "The Frequently Flying (and more frequently lying) Prime Minister is off to Japan and China." "His visit to China is a moment of some reckoning for India. We are being forced to normalise relations with China -- largely on their terms, with China trying to take advantage of the downturn in Indo-US ties as well," Ramesh said in a post on X.

"China's jugalbandi with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor - revealed by our own military establishment itself - has been forgotten," the Congress leader said.

"The extraordinarily bizarre statement of the Prime Minister of June 19, 2020, when he proclaimed that 'Na koi hamari seema mein ghus aaya hai, na hi koi ghusa hua hai' greatly hurt our negotiating strength," Ramesh claimed.

It left India with little room to manoeuvre and this visit, despite the failure to restore the pre-April 2020 status quo, is the inevitable result of that "notorious and cowardly clean chit", he said.

"Even as the PM jets off abroad, the long-suffering people of Manipur are still awaiting his visit there to heal the wounds of May 2023," he said.

But the PM simply and "stubbornly refuses" to engage with the state, its political parties and leaders, civil society organisations, and the people themselves, he alleged.

"He (Modi) has simply washed his hands off Manipur - which stands as a tragic testimony to the blundering of the Union Home Minister," Ramesh claimed.

Embarking on a tour of Japan and China, Prime Minister Modi on Thursday exuded confidence that the visit would further national interests and priorities, and contribute to building fruitful cooperation in advancing regional and global peace.

In the first leg of his trip, Modi is visiting Japan on August 29 to 30, and he arrived in Tokyo this morning.

From Japan, he will travel to China on a two-day visit to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).