As Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Manipur Saturday in what was his first visit to the strife-torn state since the onset of ethnic conflict between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities in May 2023, the Opposition INDIA alliance called it a “farce” and a “grave insult” to the affected people.
During his tour of Manipur, PM Modi met internally displaced people in Churachandpur and Imphal besides addressing gatherings there.
Over the last two years, the Congress and other INDIA bloc parties have repeatedly demanded that the PM visit Manipur, with the Opposition even raising the issue of Modi’s “silence” in Parliament on multiple occasions.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the PM’s “three-hour pit stop in Manipur is not compassion”, but is “farce, tokenism, and a grave insult to a 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 Kharge in a post on X.
He said Manipur had witnessed 864 days of violence with 300 lives lost, 67,000 people displaced, and 1,500 injured. “You made 46 foreign trips since, but not a single visit to share two words of sympathy with your own citizens,” he said.
Kharge, who is also Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha, said that Modi’s last visit to Manipur was January 2022 and that it was “for the (Assembly) elections”.
Targeting Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Kharge alleged, “Your and Amit Shah’s gross incompetence and complicity in betraying all communities was shielded from scrutiny, by imposing President’s Rule in the state. Violence still continues.”
The Congress’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, who is also the party’s Assam unit president, said the “first step on the journey to peace and healing in Manipur should have been Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the state two years ago”. “Now two years late his visit should primarily be about respecting the sentiments of the Northeast. Instead the optics are tone-deaf and concentrated on the image of the Prime Minister rather than the ground reality.”
The LoP in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, said Friday it was not a “big deal” that PM Modi was visiting Manipur now. “Manipur has been in trouble for a long time and the PM has decided to go there now. So that’s not a big deal. The main issue today in India is ‘vote chori’,” he said.
A senior Congress leader said that the PM’s visit to Manipur after more than two years of violence was “an opportunity presented to the Opposition on a platter”. “We all know that the BJP and the Modi government have been largely silent over Manipur. The PM dodged the topic in Parliament too, and mostly remained silent. Now, if he went there, we have to make sure that it is conveyed to the people of the state and the country that the visit was just tokenism,” he said.
Other constituents of the INDIA bloc also hit out at the PM for his “short visit” and called it “too little, too late”.
Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Javed Ali Khan said the PM has “taken cognisance of Manipur after years – something he should have done earlier”. “If from the first day (of violence), the PM’s approach to Manipur was positive, then many lives would have been saved, and the state wouldn’t have been destroyed. This conflict could have ended very early. But better late than never,” Khan told The Indian Express.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sagarika Ghose said, “It is the most embarrassing politics of photo ops. For more than two years, Manipur has been in crisis. Now, the PM has gone there for three hours. It is just for tokenism. It is way too little and too late,” Ghose said. “Manipur needs a healing touch and genuine compassion, not tokenism.”
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Kumar Jha said this “much-delayed” visit by the PM to Manipur “ought to have carried the weight of reconciliation and the balm of healing”. “Expectations were not unreasonable – moments of crisis call for a leader to offer reassurance, humility, and concrete measures. Instead, what unfolded was an all-too-familiar pattern now: soaring rhetoric, heavy on sound but light on substance. The opportunity to bridge divides, to address the anxieties of people with empathy and clarity, was once again squandered. Words alone cannot heal; they must be backed by action and sincerity. When the rhetoric overwhelms reality, disappointment deepens and trust erodes further,” Jha said.
CPI leader P Sandosh Kumar said the PM’s visit to Manipur was of “no use” and that “Modi’s bhakts” had in Parliament justified him not visiting the state. “What has changed now? They should at least give out a statement on the visit and why it is happening now,” Kumar said. “He bought a ticket after the bus had left. What is the point now?”