Delhi (AsiaNews) – Narendra Modi arrived today in Churachandpur, a Kuki majority area, to meet with refugees and internally displaced people in his first visit to the state since communal violence broke out in 2023, causing hundreds of deaths.
Tensions and controversy preceded the visit, fuelled, among others, by India’s main opposition party. Indian National Congress (INC) President Mallikarjun Kharge accuses the prime minister of holding a large-scale welcoming ceremony to boost his own image.
This “is a cruel prick,” Kharge said, in the hearts of people who are wounded and still suffering today. “Where is your Rajadharma?” he asked, using the Sanskrit term for the ruler’s duty to ensure peace and prosperity for the people under their command and guidance.
In anticipation of Modi's visit, the authorities have imposed tight security in Imphal and Churachandpur districts, deploying a significant number of state and Union security forces.
Addressing the crowd at a rally in Churachandpur, a predominantly Kuki-Zo district, the prime minister said he wanted Manipur to become “a symbol of peace, prosperity and progress”.
“Today, I want to promise you that the Government of India is with you and I am with you," he added, calling the area a “land of courage”:
“We are going to become the world's third-largest economy very soon... There was a time when decisions made in Delhi took decades to reach here. Today, our Churachandpur, our Manipur, are progressing together with the rest of the nation.”
The prime minister mentioned the state’s progress, from water in homes, which was a luxury for the few until a few years ago, to a housing plan aimed at the poorest sections of the population.
“I would appeal to all organisations to move forward on the path of peace and fulfil their dreams. I am with you, the Government of India is with the people of Manipur," Modi declared.
The opposition's statements on the eve of the prime minister's visit to the area were of a completely different nature.
“Narendra Modi ji, your 3-hour pit stop in Manipur is not compassion – it's farce, tokenism, and a grave insult to wounded people. Your so-called roadshow in Imphal and Churachandpur today, is nothing but a cowardly escape from hearing the cries of people in relief camps," said INC chief Kharge in a post on X.
Overall, we have had “864 days of violence:-- 300 lives lost, 67,000 displaced, 1,500 plus injured. You made 46 foreign trips since, but not a single visit to share two words of sympathy with your own citizens," Kharge added.
"Your last visit to Manipur? January 2022 — for elections!” stressed the opposition leader, who slammed the prime minister and the Home Affairs minister for “gross incompetence and complicity in betraying all communities” while “Violence still continues”.
His final thoughts were reserved for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which according to the opposition leader has a duty to ensure respect for law and order in the state, even if today they are again dithering.
Kharge noted “that [it] is your government which is responsible for National Security” while “You are organising a grand welcome ceremony for yourself.”
Speaking to reporters in Wayanad, INC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also attacked the prime minister, pointing out that he should have visited the state far sooner.
"I am glad that he has decided, after two years, that it is worth visiting (Manipur),” said Gandhi. “He should have gone long before. It is very unfortunate that he has allowed what is happening there to continue for so long and for so many people to be killed. That has not been the tradition of prime ministers in India," she lamented.
Communal violence between ethnic Meitei and Kuki-Zo erupted in Manipur, northeastern India, in May 2023, flaring up periodically since then, with a total death toll of around 300.
