'Belated, Face-Saving Pit Stop': Congress Slams PM Modi's Manipur Visit

New Delhi: Opposition Congress on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's “pit stop” visit to ethnic-violence hit Manipur with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge terming the PM's visit “farce, tokenism, and a grave insult to a wounded people”.

PM Modi, who is on a three-day tour of five states from Saturday, arrived in Manipur capital Imphal where he launched various developmental projects. He also visited Churachandpur where he met the people displaced due to the ethnic violence which broke out in May, 2023.

But Congress President Kharge said that the PM's “3-hour PIT STOP in Manipur is not compassion — it’s 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!,” Kharge said.

The Congress President also slammed the PM over his repeated foreign trips since the Manipur violence erupted while snubbing the strife-torn state.

“You have made 46 foreign trips since, but not a single visit to share two words of sympathy with your own citizens”. He said that the PM's last visit to Manipur was in January 2022 for elections.

“Your “Double Engine” has bulldozed the innocent lives of Manipur. You and HM 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,” Kharge said.

He said the BJP which was responsible for maintaining Law & Order in the state “and it is now the Union Govt which is again dithering”.

“This hush-hush PIT STOP isn’t repentance. It’s not even guilt. You are organising a GRAND WELCOME ceremony for yourself. It is a CRUEL PRICK to the wounds of those still suffering because of your own abdication of basic CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES”!

'Belated, Face-saving Farce', Says Venugopal
Congress leader K C Venugopal called PM Modi’s Manipur visit a “display of how sorely lacking in empathy and compassion a leader can be”.

“Manipur is burning since 2023, and he found time to pay a visit today - after 2.5 years. This visit too, is a half-hearted measure with him spending barely a few hours there, and is clubbed with a visit to Mizoram,” Venugopal said in a post.

He alleged that neither had the government “presented a solution to address the deep social rift that caused the civil war, nor do they have the courage to bring warring groups together and make a genuine attempt at peace”.

“Instead, he is treating this like any other PR event, treating his grand arrival as an occasion to celebrate. Such a tone deaf, insensitive and self-aggrandising stunt will be nothing but a mockery of the people of Manipur,” he said.

“As this belated, face-saving farce takes place today, one is left to wonder whether those who peddle hate every single day can ever be messengers of peace”.

'Shockingly Insensitive', Says Jairam Ramesh
Congress veteran Jairam Ramesh said that the 'less' time spent by the people in the violence-hit Manipur was "shockingly insensitive" saying the PM stayed in the state for less than 5 hours.

"The people of Manipur have been undergoing tremendous pain, distress, suffering, and agony for the past 28 months ever the since the state erupted. The people of Manipur have waited patiently for the PM to visit the state. He has finally obliged them today. But he was in the state, from landing till take-off, for less than 5 hours. The PM has the time (and the inclination) to spend days campaigning and traveling across the world. But is Manipur worth only so much to him? It is shockingly insensitive," Ramesh wrote in a post.

Read More:

1. 'I Stand In Solidarity With You': PM Modi To Victims Of Manipur Violence
2. 'Northeast Becoming Growth Engine Of India': PM Modi Inaugurates Mizoram's First Rail Line, Launches New Rajdhani Express