Rahul Gandhi on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Manipur, promising Congress help in restoring peace and brotherhood while sidestepping questions that could potentially derail his message for a collective effort to bring the state’s divided people together.

“I feel that it is important that the Prime Minister come here, listen to the people of Manipur, and try and understand what is going on in Manipur,” he said in a media statement at the fag end of his daylong visit, his first to Manipur after taking over as leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

“After all, Manipur is a proud state of the Indian Union and it is very important that the Prime Minister — even if it wasn’t a tragedy, even if there was no tragedy — should have come to Manipur.”

He issued an appeal: “In this huge tragedy, I request the Prime Minister to take one day, two days of his time and come here and listen to the people of Manipur. It will comfort the people of Manipur, and we will as the Congress party be ready to support anything that will improve the situation.”

Rahul Gandhi at a relief camp in Jiribam, Manipur, on Monday. PTI picture

Rahul expressed unhappiness at the “progress” made in Manipur and communicated this to governor Anusuiya Uikey during their meeting at the Raj Bhavan.

“We expressed our displeasure and said we are not happy with the progress that has taken place here…. I don’t want to go further into politicising the issue…. I come here as a brother, as a family member,” Rahul said.

The Prime Minister had in the Rajya Sabha last week said that efforts were on to bring peace and asked the Opposition to rise above party politics to help bring normalcy to the state.

Rahul, who was on his third visit to the state after ethnic violence erupted on May 3 last year, said he had come to listen to the people and build their confidence.

He added that as a member of the country’s Opposition, he also hoped to apply pressure on the government to act.

“Here, the need of the hour is peace. Violence is hurting everybody…. Never seen anywhere else in India what is going on here. The state is completely split in two.”

Normally open to fielding questions, Rahul avoided taking any on Monday evening, maintaining he was “not interested in replying to questions that are designed to divert the issue”.

But Rahul’s third visit to Manipur in just over a year drew the BJP’s ire, more so with the Congress contrasting it with Modi heading to Russia on the same day after avoiding the strife-torn state for over a year.

Modi had not visited Manipur even in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections despite being the BJP’s main campaigner.

As Rahul moved from one relief camp to another in Manipur and visited one in Assam, the BJP’s IT Cell sought to pin the “ethnic conflict” in Manipur on the Congress. It called the violence a legacy issue and listed the killings in the state from 1990 onwards.

“Forget Third Time Fail Rahul Gandhi, did any Congress leader, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was a member of Rajya Sabha from Assam, visit the strife torn region. Balak Buddhi is simply indulging in sick tragedy tourism,” BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya posted on X.

This was a response to Congress media-in-charge Jairam Ramesh’s swipe at Modi for avoiding Manipur since the trouble began.

“Today, the non-biological PM goes to Moscow while the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha heads for Assam and Manipur…. This is Rahul Gandhi’s third visit to Manipur ever since the state blew up fourteen months ago,” Ramesh had posted.

“The non-biological PM has not found the time nor even had the inclination to visit Manipur even for a few hours after the grave crisis erupted on May 3rd, 2023. He has not even met the CM of the state — who happens to be from his own party — and other political leaders of the state including MLAs and MPs.”

Rahul visited four relief camps. He flew from Delhi to Silchar in Assam to visit a Kuki-Zo relief camp in Fulertal, Cachar district, before crossing over into Manipur by road and visiting a Meitei camp in Jiribam.

He then headed back to Silchar, from where he flew to Imphal. He then travelled to a Kuki-Zo camp in Churachandpur and a Meitei camp in Moirang. In all four places, the wedge in Manipur’s society was evident as was the plight of the displaced.