The Congress on Friday gave voice to the feelings among a section of the people that Narendra Modi’s conduct in the Lok Sabha on Thursday was not prime ministerial as he chose to indulge in politicking instead of conveying the pain the country felt over the miseries of Manipur.

Rahul Gandhi said on Friday: “Modi spoke on Manipur for two minutes in his speech that lasted for 2 hours and 13 minutes. While Manipur has witnessed rape, killings, arson, what we saw in Parliament was laughter, jokes, slogan-shouting. The Prime Minister was laughing. The entire cabinet is in giggles. This is complete insanity. I can’t believe it!”

While many academics, political scientists and common people felt dismayed by what happened in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the no-confidence motion, Rahul said Modi had not yet understood what it meant to be the Prime Minister.

Addressing a media conference, Rahul said: “When somebody becomes the Prime Minister, he ceases to be a politician. He becomes the representative of the voice of this country. Politics should be put aside; the Prime Minister should speak not as a petty politician or as the leader of a political party. The Prime Minister should speak with the weight of the Indian people behind him.”

Pointing to the ceaseless laughter, slogan-shouting and ridicule as the Prime Minister spoke in Parliament, the Congress leader said: “It’s tragic to watch Mr Narendra Modi. It’s sad. Because the Prime Minister doesn’t understand what he, actually, is. He is our representative, he is my representative. And watching the Prime Minister spend two hours talking about the Congress, talking about the Opposition, making ridiculous remarks about the name (the INDIA coalition), this really doesn’t do justice to the Indian Prime Minister.”

Rahul added: “I have seen Prime Ministers from the Congress party, I have seen a Prime Minister from the BJP. I have seen Vajpayee, Deve Gowda — none of them have ever done this. This is the (reflection of) complete misunderstanding in the mind of Narendra Modi about what the Prime Minister of India is.”

While many MPs from the INDIA combine expressed similar views, a Delhi University professor said on the condition of anonymity: “While we should be ashamed of the imagery coming out of Parliament last evening, the Prime Minister’s conduct was particularly hurting. The entire Treasury benches celebrated his thoughtless and indecorous behaviour. The continuous sloganeering, taunts and giggles must have saddened the people of Manipur.”

Arguing that the subject was not the Congress or Rahul Gandhi, he said: “His speech was not about Manipur or India. It was about Modi; his views, his politics, his ambitions. You can talk about your impending victory at public rallies. Parliament is not about him.”

Rahul said he had been to all the states and seen natural calamities, violence and other tragedies, but he had not experienced anything like Manipur before.

“When I said in Parliament that Modi and (Amit) Shah have murdered Hindustan in Manipur, they were not hollow words. The state has been torn apart. We were clearly told there should be no Kuki in our security detail when we go to Meitei areas. They said ‘you are welcome but we will shoot any Kuki who comes along’. The same when we went to Kuki areas. The state has been decimated. Bharat Mata is the idea that people can live in peace and harmony; that idea has been killed.”

Insisting that the Indian Army was capable of enforcing order in two days, Rahul said: “There is no dialogue between the two communities. Have you ever heard anywhere if this security officer comes here, we will put a bullet in his head? The Prime Minister has many tools that he can use in such situations. He is using none. The only conclusion that I can draw is the Prime Minister doesn’t want to stamp out the fire. He wants Manipur to burn.”

To a question about Union home minister Shah saying that the Manipur chief minister had not been removed because he was cooperating and had done whatever the Centre wanted, Rahul retorted: “Thousands of weapons were looted. Did Shah want this to happen? Violence hasn’t stopped. Does Shah want violence to continue?”