Sravasti Dasgupta 
New Delhi: For the second consecutive day, Manipur’s moment in parliament came in the dead of the night as the Rajya Sabha took up the discussion on the statutory resolution on the proclamation of President’s Rule in Manipur at 2.37 am on April 4.
The discussion in the Lok Sabha the day before was taken up at 2 am and lasted only 40 minutes. The one-and-half-hour-long discussion in the Rajya Sabha was initiated after the House passed The Waqf Amendment Bill at 2.35 am. While leader of opposition Mallikarjun Kharge requested the vice president and Rajya Sabha chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar to conduct the discussion in the morning, Dhankhar went ahead with the discussion.
According to Article 356, President’s Rule needs to be approved by both Houses of parliament within two months of its imposition. The ongoing Budget session of parliament is set to conclude on April 4 (today).
During the discussion, opposition members raised the irony of the late hour in which the debate was taking place and questioned prime minister Narendra Modi’s failure to visit the state almost two years after ethnic violence first started and said that the President’s Rule was only imposed on February 13, when chief minister N. Biren Singh was faced with a no-confidence motion in the assembly. In his reply Union home minister Amit Shah said that he did not want to “politicise” the issue by comparing the Bharatiya Janata Party rule with the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance governments but went ahead and listed a series of comparisons with opposition ruled states and incidents of violence in Manipur under previous governments.
“There was not a single curfew in seven years of our rule in Manipur where on an average 225 days in a year curfews and blockades would be imposed. The violence took place because of the high court’s judgement which was given without taking the centre or the tribal commission’s recommendation,” said Shah in his reply referring to the Manipur high court’s 2023 direction to the state government to consider the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes list.
“President’s Rule was not imposed because of any no-confidence motion, the Congress did not even have the numbers. Two meetings between the two communities have already taken place while the parliament session was on, and a third is scheduled now in Delhi. I hope both the communities will adopt the path of dialogue. There is peace now and slowly normalcy will return. And after it does we will not keep President’s Rule for an extra day. It is not the policy of our party.”
Opposition questions Modi’s failure to visit Manipur
During the debate, opposition members questioned Modi for his failure to visit the strife torn state and pointed to the irony that the discussion on the imposition of President’s Rule was taking place in the middle of the night.
“3,80,000 kms-that is the distance the prime minister has travelled nationally and internationally in two years. It is the same distance from planet earth to moon. But he cannot visit Manipur,” said TMC MP Derek O’Brien.
“It has been 22 months we are here today. There has been prolonged violence. Women, children, elderly, shopkeepers, everyone has been affected. But the problem is despite 22 months you still won’t acknowledge that there is a problem.”
In his response, Shah said he did not want to politicise the discussion but accused the TMC government in West Bengal of not acting on cases of sexual violence and pointed to the rape and murder of the doctor at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Hospital and the alleged sexual harassment of women at Bengal’s Sandeshkhali village.
“I don’t want to politicise. Derek O’Brien spoke about the women of Manipur. This took place because of ethnic violence. They say 250 people were killed in Manipur and I agree. But in Bengal just in election violence 250 people were killed. There was no ethnic violence in West Bengal, and hundreds of women were abused in Sandeshkhali. Your government did nothing. And a person of your own party was behind it whom you had to suspend. We support neither, but you cannot have double standards,” he said.
Also read: Sandeshkhali Unrest Spills Over, Villagers Attack Local TMC Leaders Over Land Grabbing Accusations
Kharge in his intervention said that despite the state witnessing horrific sexual violence that provoked nationwide outrage when a video emerged of two Kuki women who were raped and paraded naked, “no decisive action was taken”.
“The chief minister should have taken moral responsibility and resigned on the first day itself. BJP was working to save prime minister Modi and not Manipur. So they refused to go there, particularly the Prime Minister. Entire Manipur was burning, sexual harassment was taking place, despite that Modi did not go there. He went to a number of foreign countries but did not set foot in Manipur,” he said.
“BJP has no plan for peace. Instead of engaging with all stakeholders they allowed the conflict to deepen. Their incompetence has pushed people further apart rather than bringing them together. Till today it is also going on, you may not agree. Despite the violence the Prime Minister has never visited. He has had time for election rallies across India but not a single visit to a state suffering from conflict,” he said.
“I demand an enquiry and let them put a white paper on the table – whether it is the fault of the state government or no support is given by the central government or it is due to politics.”
Kharge accused the BJP government of imposing President’s Rule because opposition parties had planned a no confidence motion and urged Modi to come to the House.
“It was not imposed for the safety and security of Manipur, it was to save their party and the future elections,” he said.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi N.V.N Somu said that imposition of President’s Rule cannot be used as a political tool.
“Prime minister and home minister have consistently criticised the Emergency rule imposed on India from 1975-77 including in the floor of this House. Our Prime Minister referred to it as ‘dark days’ and the home minister called it ‘killing of democracy’. Does this concern not include Manipur?
In his reply Shah said that the President’s Rule was not imposed due to the no confidence motion or the government’s incapacity to tackle the violence as there have been no incidents since November.
“On February 11 the chief minister resigned. There was no no-confidence motion being brought against the government because the Congress does not even have the numbers to do so. The chief minister resigned and after that the BJP’s 37, NPF’s 6, NPF 5 JD(U)’s 1 and Congress’ 5 members also did not stake claim with the Governor to form the government. That is when the decision to impose President’s Rule was imposed,” he said.
‘Irony of the discussion’
Opposition members also pointed to the late hour in which the discussion was taking place in the House.
“The worst thing is the irony of discussing this in parliament in the dead of the night,” said O’ Brien.
“We are the Council of States. On the last day of the parliament session you bring this at 3 o’clock in the morning. You couldn’t bring this in the beginning of the session? What are you trying to show? Bring it at 3 o’clock or 5 o’clock we will be here to discuss.”
Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP A.A. Rahim said the images of the two women paraded naked will remain a “symbol of Prime Minister Modi’s Nari Shakti”.
A screengrab from the viral video which shows two Kuki women being paraded naked.
“Without sleep we are here to discuss the statutory resolution but a state has been unable to sleep since May 3, 2023. The government is not ready to discuss the number of people killed, women raped but where is our prime minister? Why did he not visit Manipur?” he asked.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh said that Manipur shows the failure of the BJP’s “double engine” government.
“In a state where you have your double engine government you have a double responsibility of development. But wherever there is a double engine government, trouble starts. Look at Uttar Pradesh, trouble starts brewing 10 days before Holi, Eid, Ram Navami. President’s Rule was only imposed when you lost both Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 elections,” he said and asked the government to work towards peace and holding elections.