The JMM and the Congress leaders in Jharkhand burnt effigies of the Prime Minister and the Manipur chief minister on Thursday evening across the state protesting against the Manipur incident where two tribal women were paraded naked and alleged to have been gang raped.

Chief minister Hemant Soren, who is heading a JMM-Congress-RJD government in the state, termed the incident a black chapter in the country’s history. “On one hand there are talks of becoming Viswa Guru (world leader) while on the other hand, we have witnessed a barbaric incident in Manipur. The condemnable incident is a black chapter in our country’s history.”

JMM central general secretary and spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya addressing media on Thursday evening called for the dismissal of the Manipur chief minister (Biren Singh) and the lodging of criminal charges against him and questioned the Prime Minister for sparing only one minute to condemn the Manipur incident in his speech before the start of the monsoon session of Parliament.

“The incident (of women being paraded naked) happened in May first week and it took the Manipur government to take action against the culprits after over two months. We demand the dismissal of the Manipur government and lodging of criminal charges against chief minister Biren Singh for violence against tribals,” said Bhattacharya.

“Unfortunately, our Prime Minister who has remained silent on the Manipur issue for over two months despite finding time for poll rallies and visiting overseas finally spoke on the issue before the start of the Lok Sabha monsoon session on Thursday but that too for only one minute in his seven minutes speech. Even that speech had political intent as he named Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan (both ruled by the Congress) along with Manipur forgetting about the shameful incidents against women in Uttar Pradesh (ruled by the BJP) and also the Bilkis Bano case in Gujarat.”