The Congress on Wednesday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his silence on violence in Manipur ahead of the discussion in European Parliament over the issue, saying there is also no guarantee that he will actually participate in a debate on the northeastern state in our own Parliament.
In a tweet, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said: “The European Parliament is scheduled to discuss Manipur today. Our Foreign Secretary has told the Europeans that this an internal matter of India. It certainly is an internal matter—on which the PM is silent and no All-Party delegation has gone to Manipur, ‘blessed by the PM’.
“There is also no guarantee that he will actually participate and speak in a debate on Manipur if allowed in our own Parliament.”
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi also slammed the government, saying that he would be happy if the Prime Minister discussed this issue even in the European Parliament.
“He (Modi) doesn’t have time to discuss in the Indian Parliament. He doesn’t have time to discuss in India. He has not addressed his ‘Maun Vrat’ is now extending to some 45 or 50 days, I don’t remember. The country would not mind anywhere on planet earth that he addresses the issue, but the problem is that his ‘Maun Vrat’ is going beyond the limits of any reasonableness,” he said at a press conference at the party headquarters when it was noted that on the eve of the Prime Minister’s visit to Paris, now the European Parliament are going to discuss about the Manipur violence and they are also going to deliberate upon passing a resolution on this entire matter.
Singhvi, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, said that Modi is one of the most articulate Prime Ministers who is maintaining a ‘Maun Vrat’ on a matter of extreme public importance not to Manipur, not to a state, but to India as a whole.
“And I see no reason why he should be avoiding this issue, when he is speaking on every other topic under the sun… in a free world, you can avoid it to the extent you want to avoid it, but in a free global world, you cannot avoid it to the extent that in the other institution, in other countries, who want to discuss it,” he said.
“On the contrary, if you discuss it and lay down your own views, others will discuss it less. Or they will at least fall in line with the broad policy of the government. Unfortunately, on matters of the moment there is not even a unilateral one-way dialogue, there is simple silence. On matters which maybe not be so important there is occasionally very-very occasionally, unilateral one-way straight dialogue. As far as important issues are concerned, there is only ‘Maun Vrat’,” Singhvi said in a dig at Modi.
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