Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi will be heading to strife-torn Manipur on Monday, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for a three-day visit to Russia and Austria.
“Rahul Gandhi will visit Manipur on Monday and meet with the victims of the violence in the state,” Keisham Meghachandra Singh, president of the Manipur Congress, told The Telegraph Online.
Modi has not visited Manipur, a state his BJP rules, since ethnic violence erupted there over a year ago. More than 200 people have died and the violence has rendered over 60, 000 people homeless in the northeast Indian state on the border with Myanmar.
Rahul had started his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur’s Thoubal on January 14, 2024.
This is his expected itinerary in Manipur on Monday:
He is supposed to land in Silchar in the morning, visit relief camps in Fulertal in Assam, then head to relief camps in Jiribam in Manipur, then in Churachandpur, then Moirang. In the evening he is supposed to meet the governor and hold a media conference. After that he is supposed to fly out.
Rahul’s meetings spark talk, headlines
Friday onwards, Rahul has been on a meeting spree. He first met the relatives of some of the 121 Hathras stampede victims and assured them of his efforts to increase the compensation that will be paid to them as ex-gratia.
On the same day he met loco pilots at the New Delhi railway station, who complained about their working conditions. Many said they were forced to work 14 to 16 hours a day. That sparked a war of words.
On Saturday, Rahul was in Ahmedabad, where the Congress office had come under attack on July 2, which escalated into a clash between supporters of the Congress and right-wing mobs.
"They [BJP] have challenged us by threatening us and damaging our office. Let me tell you that we are together going to break their government like they damaged our office. Take it in writing that Congress will contest in Gujarat and defeat Narendra Modi and BJP in Gujarat like we did in Ayodhya," Rahul said on Saturday.
Manipur focus
The Rae Bareli MP had visited relief camps in Manipur’s Moirang and Churachandpur during a two-day visit in June 2023.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won both the Inner and Outer Manipur Lok Sabha seats, trouncing the BJP.
In his maiden speech on the floor of the Lok Sabha around the midnight of July 1, the Inner Manipur Congress MP Angomcha Bimol Akoijam had lambasted Modi and the BJP for their silence on Manipur.
On Wednesday, Modi broke his public silence on Manipur during his reply to the motion of thanks on the President’s address. The prime minister accused the Opposition of trying to reap political dividends from the state’s violence, which he said was on the ebb.
Normality,Modi had said, would be restored soon.
"We must acknowledge the fact that the incidents of violence in Manipur are on a continuous downward trajectory," he had said.
Modi had insisted that businesses have opened in most parts of the state, and all efforts were being made to ensure a return of complete peace.
The situation on the ground appears to be different. While the guns have indeed been silent for the last few days, heavy rains and floods have added to the misery.
“The government has done nothing so far to ensure the people could return to their homes,” said Ronid “Akhu” Chingangbam, Imphal-based musician and activist.
“The Meiteis cannot go to the hills and the Kukis cannot come to the valley. Because of the floods everything is shut for three–four days. Firing may have stopped for now but everything else remains the same.”
