New Delhi: Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi visited Manipur on Monday (July 8), his first visit to the violence-torn northeastern state since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and said that while he had hoped that the situation would have improved, it “is still nowhere near what it should be” and requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the violence-torn state.
The 14-month-long conflict in the state, which began on May 3 last year, has resulted in over 200 deaths and over 60,000 people being displaced and forced to live in relief camps. The divide between the Kukis and Meiteis has only widened over the past year.
Gandhi visited relief camps in Churachandpur, Moirang as well as in Jiribam. Later, Gandhi also met Manipur governor Anusuiya Uikey.
“It’s the third time I have come here since the problem started and it has been a tremendous tragedy. I was expecting some improvement in the situation but I was disappointed to see that the situation is still nowhere near what it should be,” he said while addressing reporters in Imphal.
Gandhi had earlier visited the state last year when violence first broke out, and then during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in January this year.
“I visited the camps and heard the people there, heard their pain. I came here to listen to them, to build confidence in them and as somebody who is in the opposition, to try and apply pressure on the government so that it acts. Here, the need of the hour is peace. Violence is hurting everybody,” he said.
“Thousands of families have been harmed, properties have been destroyed, family members have been killed and I have never seen anywhere in India what is going on here. The state is completely split in two and it is a tragedy for everybody involved.”
The physical divide in the state hinges on ethnicity and has resulted in the state being virtually divided into two – between the Meiteis populated valley area and the Kuki-Zo populated hilly areas. Meiteis cannot go to the hilly areas, while the Kuki-Zo who live in the hills cannot go to the valley areas including the capital Imphal, which has better facilities, including government hospitals and the state’s only airport.
Gandhi said that Modi, who has not visited the state since the violence broke out, must visit to understand the ground reality.
“I feel that it is important that the prime minister come here, listen to the people of Manipur, try and understand what is going on. After all, Manipur is a proud state of the Indian union. Even if there was no tragedy, the Prime Minister should have come here. And in this huge tragedy, I request the Prime Minister to take one-two days to come here and try and listen to the people of Manipur. It will comfort the people of Manipur,” he said.
Hours before Gandhi’s visit, firing was reported in the Jiribam district in the early hours of Monday.
“Gunmen fired several rounds around 3:30 am towards the Meitei area of Gularthal, prompting security forces to retaliate. The exchange of fire continued till 7 am,” an official was quoted as saying to news agency Press Trust of India.
Manipur Congress president Keisham Meghachandra told the reporters that during his visit to Jiribam, Gandhi spoke to people in the relief camp.
“Rahul Gandhi visited the Jiribam district early in the morning today. And the people of this Jiribam district are very happy. Rahul Gandhi spoke with them and they shared their pain and also expressed many things like the sorrows of students and women,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi at a relief camp in Manipur on July 8, 2024. Photo: X (Twitter)/@INCIndia.
Meghachandra said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should visit Manipur in order to find a solution to the ongoing conflict, and while he had addressed the ongoing violence in the state in parliament last week, his statement that normalcy is returning to the violence-torn state is not true.
“Prime minister said in parliament that Manipur is returning to normalcy. But you see prior to Rahul Gandhi’s visit, today itself, close firing happened about 10km away from Jiribam headquarters. It is not that normalcy is returning that has been stated by the Prime Minister. So violence is still continuing. This visit is a peace mission. It shows that Rahul Gandhi loves the people of Manipur. In the last parliament session newly elected MPs of Manipur gave heated arguments. We demand that the Prime Minister should visit Manipur so that some solution can be found. His silence will not bring any solution to Manipur,” he said.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi and Manipur: the Politics Not of Transaction but of Love
Modi’s statement in the Rajya Sabha addressing the violence in Manipur came a day after he faced consistent sloganeering from the opposition in the Lok Sabha that chanted “Manipur, Manipur”. The day before in his maiden speech close to midnight in an almost empty Lok Sabha, Manipur MP Angomcha Bimol Akoijam tore into the ruling BJP and Modi for ignoring the “hurt, anger and sufferings”.
Gandhi on his visit to Manipur was accompanied by Congress general secretary (organisation) and MP K.C. Venugopal, Manipur’s state Congress leaders as well as newly elected MPs Angomcha Bimol Akoijam (Inner Manipur) and Alfred Kanngam Arthur (Outer Manipur).
A delegation of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) submitted a memorandum to Gandhi.
“There has been no improvement in the security situation following over a year of killings and displacements; citizens continue to face daily danger of death,” the memorandum stated.
Highlighting the divide between the hill areas and the valley, which has affected connectivity and supply of essential goods and commodities, the memorandum called for an immediate political solution.
“An immediate political solution is required to break the cycle of violence and atrocities in Manipur..” it said.
In another memorandum submitted to Gandhi, the Kuki Students’ Organisation in Churachandpur district has urged for exam centres in the area so that students can take all-India competitive exams, and helicopter facilities from Lamka to Aizawl, Lamka to Kangpokpi, Lamka to Moreh to ease travel, among others. The Kuki Women’s Organisation for Human Rights in its memorandum has highlighted sexual violence being used as a “method or tactic of warfare” and that the shutdown of internet services in the state has prevented these abuses from becoming known.
Last year, Modi broke his silence on the ongoing violence in the northeastern state, 70 days after the violence began, only after a harrowing video went viral on social media the day before that showed two Kuki women being paraded naked in Kangpokpi on May 4.
