Manipur once again captured the top trending spot in Politics in ‘X’ formerly Twitter with 150K posts on Tuesday and mind you, it is not the first. Only recently, Manipur’s first-timer MP Angomcha Bimol Akoijam’s midnight thunder in his maiden speech at Lok Sabha on July 1 created a sensation on social media including ‘X’ and it went viral for the next few days. Not only Manipur, Professor Bimol’s powerful speech was dubbed the most powerful speech by an MP from the Northeastern region and it got rave reviews in both mainstream and social media.
For the next few days, every news channel was vying for a first-hand interview of the MP as his speech managed to break Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the Manipur crisis. Never mind the shortfall in content and intent, Professor Bimol at least got the Prime Minister to speak. The mandarins at North Block or Union Home Ministry must have burnt midnight oil to cobble together a hastily prepared reply for the Prime Minister the next day in Rajya Sabha.
The lower house ‘Lok Sabha’ was a risk and teeming with MPs of a resurgent INDIA alliance led by Congress, and of course the new leader of opposition Rahul Congress. So, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose Rajya Sabha to break his silence on Manipur. All the while, Modi’s minions here in Manipur chose to criticise Professor Bimol saying that his speech did not focus on ‘core issues’ of the Manipur imbroglio or for that matter any proposal for restoring peace.
We shall not deliberate further on the poor and disappointing performance of its MPs in the Parliament. But we must point out a few facts for the consumption of local BJP karyakatas. First, the most important agenda of any MP should be to wake up a person who is not really sleeping to the realities of the pain and suffering of the Manipur people besides their ardent longing for peace. Secondly, given the limited time slot and lateness of the hour Professor Bimol did the right thing by focusing on the indifferent and uncaring attitude of the Prime Minister towards the state of Manipur and appealing to the central government towards the plight of more than 60 thousand internally displaced people. Thirdly, what the chamchas could not do for more than 14 months Professor Bimol achieved in a few minutes.
The local BJP leaders and their supporters were frustrated and disappointed with their Supreme leader’s silence which landed them in the present quandary, but they are too timid and feeble to express their feelings. So, they had no alternative to vent their anger and desperation against Professor Bimol and the party he incidentally belongs to. They knew, the victory of Congress candidates from Manipur was the result of lack of apathy from Prime Minister and not lending ears to their reports or appeal. They had tried every trick in the book to get their nominees elected but failed. To add more injury to the wounded self,
Congress and INDIA alliance managed to come out strong in the Lok Sabha elections. The day after Bimol’s speech, the halls of Lok Sabha resonated with cries of Manipur when the Prime Minister Narendra was giving his reply to the debate on President’s address, but he chose not to mention Manipur. In Rajya Sabha, he must have been hard pressed to speak. But, it was clear he had no clue on how to solve the crisis in Manipur. Then, his minions here begun defending his lack of ideas by saying that Professor Bimol or Congress did not come up with any ideas for solving the Manipur imbroglio.
Again, when the leader of Opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi chose to visit Manipur, BJP leaders here and in New Delhi were aghast with the idea. They say, Rahul Gandhi is trying to politicise the issue and fomenting trouble. The irony is that, they did not try to defend the supreme leader’s foreign tour while criticising Rahul Gandhi’s visit in Manipur. No doubt, such parleys have brought Manipur crisis at the forefront. But, there is no talk of any solution or efforts towards peace of which the governments in power have to take the initiative.
