Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday accused the BJP of being “the matchstick which burnt Manipur” and criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has not visited the state during the 20-month-old unrest, for failing to carry outhis “Rajdharma”.

Kharge alleged the BJP had a vested interest in keeping Manipur restive but did not elaborate. He referred to how the violence, which began on May 3, 2023, has killed over 250 people and displaced 60,000.

While Manipur is no stranger to ethnic strife, the unusually prolonged conflict between the mainly Hindu Meiteis and largely Christian Kuki-Zos has appeared to acquire communal overtones with widespread attacks on religious places, amid allegations of pro-Meitei bias against the state’s BJP government.

Kharge suggested that whatever the Prime Minister might do now to try and resolve the Manipur conflict would be too little, too late.

“You cannot escape the Constitutional culpability of not following the Rajdharma,” he said in a post on X addressed directly to @narendramodi ji.

The term “Rajdharma” – a ruler’s duties — became part of modern India’s political lexicon after then BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee used it to remind then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi of his duties in the context of the 2002 riots.

Kharge reminded Prime Minister Modi of the three “simple requests” the INDIA bloc parties had made to him on December 6: “Visit Manipur before 2024 ends but you did NOT; call representatives of all political parties at your office in Delhi but you HAVEN’T; involve yourself directly in Manipur but it DOES NOT seem that you have”.

The immediate trigger for Kharge’s broadside seemed to be the fresh outbreak of violence in Kangpokpi district, where a mob attacked the superintendent of police.

Kharge noted that the last time Modi had visited Manipur was in 2022, to seek votes for the BJP. The Congress has repeatedly underscored that the Prime Minister has not visited the northeastern state since the latest strife began.

Modi did not travel to the state even to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections last year.

“More than 600 days have passed, and media reports through satellite images have now revealed that villages after villages have been wiped off in the state,” Kharge said.

He added: “Your incompetent and shameless Chief Minister has expressed regret but has conveniently brazened out your absence in the state.”

Kharge underlined the Supreme Court’s comment that it was the primary responsibility of the Centre and the state governments to ensure peace and normalcy.

Modi has not just stayed away from Manipur but maintained a near-impregnable silence on the violence except for a brief intervention in Parliament last July and an earlier reference during his Independence Day address in 2023.

Kharge has visited Manipur once while Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has done so three times and met victims of the violence. The Congress launched its Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra ahead of the Lok Sabha elections from Manipur, and won both the Lok Sabha seats from the state.

Unlike Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah hasvisited Manipur after the unrest began.