Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who refused to address Parliament on Manipur until he was forced to do so by a no-confidence motion and then spoke about the state for a total 5 minutes and 30 seconds in a speech more than two hours long, on Saturday accused the Opposition of not allowing a debate on the issue.

“They ran away from the House, the entire country saw it. But it’s very unfortunate that these people committed such a big betrayal of the people of Manipur,” Modi said, addressing a meet of the Bengal BJP unit virtually from Delhi.

“They sidestepped a discussion on Manipur and moved a no-confidence motion to give priority to their politics,” he said, accusing the Opposition of not being concerned over the plight of the people of the state.

Violence erupted in Manipur on May 3 and has left more than 180 people dead and 60,000 homeless, but the Prime Minister ignored repeated requests to him to visit the state or even issue an appeal for peace.

The first time Modi spoke, uttering a few sentences outside the steps of Parliament, was on July 20 after a video of two Kuki women being paraded naked by a Meitei mob became viral. Even then, he equated the horror with crimes against women in Opposition-ruled states.

On Saturday, Modi accused the Opposition of not allowing a debate on Manipur in Parliament, saying that even before the start of the session, home minister Amit Shah had written to the Opposition leaders for an immediate discussion.

“Had the ruling and the Opposition sides debated such a sensitive issue, then surely it would have acted as a balm for the people of Manipur and led to new ways to solve the problem,” he said.

What Modi did not say was that the Opposition had been demanding that given the gravity of the situation in Manipur, the Prime Minister should reply to the debate in Parliament, but his government had refused. Modi would not reply to the Manipur discussion, Shah would, it said.

The Opposition members protested and stalled Parliament proceedings, demanding that the Prime Minister come to the House and make a statement on Manipur.

Finding that the government was not ready to accept their demand, the Opposition moved a no-confidence motion on the Manipur situation, making it clear that its only aim was to compel Modi to address Parliament on the issue.

Bound by rules to reply to the debate on the no-confidence motion, Modi had to come to the Lok Sabha and speak. He spoke for a record 2 hours and 13 minutes, but out of this spared just over 5 minutes for Manipur. Even this was after the Opposition had walked out in protest, having waited for an hour and a half for him to speak about the strife-torn state. Modi had been speaking about the Congress, the Opposition alliance, Rahul Gandhi, Nehru and himself.

On Saturday, Modi said: “The Opposition parties ran away from the House. They didn’t want voting as it would have exposed cracks in their alliance.”

Modi obliquely sought to justify his dwelling more on political issues rather than speaking more on the Manipur situation, saying that the Opposition had raised a number of issues to launch “bogus political attacks” on him, again, to play politics and not show concern for the people of Manipur, according to him.