Manipur video: Opposition MPs demand PM Modi's statement in Parliament
New Delhi (PTI): A day after a video showing two women being paraded naked by some men in Manipur surfaced, several opposition MPs expressed concern over the situation in the violence-hit state and demanded a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the matter.
As the Monsoon session of Parliament started, opposition leaders referred to the May 4 video of the heinous crime to say the situation in Manipur was unacceptable and accused the BJP governments in the Centre as well as the northeastern state of being unable to control the situation there.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said, "This incident is shameful for the whole country. It is very disturbing."
"We will raise the issue. We will be the voice of women who have faced violence in Manipur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should make a statement to the people of the country through Parliament," she said.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh accused the prime minister of being silent over the matter. "An insensitive and cruel leader is leading this country. Manipur is burning and Modi ji is silent," he said.
AAP MP Raghav Chadha said, "I am wearing black today to protest and stand in solidarity with the people of Manipur. The state is burning and the Union government is refusing to even acknowledge what is going on in Manipur."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the incident of women being paraded naked in Manipur has shamed 140 crore Indians, asserting that the law will act with its full might and no guilty will be spared.
"Today, when I am standing by this temple of democracy my heart is full of pain and anger," he told reporters at the Parliament complex before the start of the Monsoon session amid criticism by opposition parties for not speaking on the ethnic violence in the BJP-ruled northeast state.
Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha gave a notice in Rajya Sabha to discuss the Manipur issue by suspending House business.
"We request the prime minister to break his silence. If you do not break your silence it makes us feel that the state government is responsible for this situation. If the Parliament does not discuss the Manipur issue, what is this Parliament for?" he posed.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday said the government was ready for a discussion on the situation in Manipur during the Monsoon Session of Parliament but termed a "caveat for disruption" the opposition's demand for a statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.
The Manipur Police on Thursday arrested one of the main accused who was seen in a May 4 video of two tribal women being paraded naked and molested by a mob at a village in Senapati district, officials said.
They said several police teams were formed immediately after the video of the incident surfaced.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Not surprised EC gave itself clean chit: Cong slams poll panel on Haryana complaints
Warns ECI of legal action over 'condescending' tone
New Delhi, Nov 1: The Congress on Friday hit out at the Election Commission after it rejected allegations of "irregularities" in Haryana assembly polls, saying if the poll panel's goal is to "strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality", then it is doing a "remarkable job" at creating that impression.
The opposition party claimed that the EC's reply was written in a tone that is condescending and warned that if the poll panel persists with such language then it would have no choice but to seek legal recourse for getting such remarks expunged.
The Congress's response came days after the EC rejected allegations levelled by it over "irregularities" in assembly polls, saying the party was raising "the smoke of a generic doubt" about the credibility of an entire electoral outcome as done in the past.
The Congress said it is not surprised that the ECI has examined its complaints and "given itself a clean chit". The answer given to the question of the machines' fluctuating batteries seeks to confuse rather than clarify, it said.
"At any rate, the ECI reply is nothing more than a standard and generic set of bullets on how the machines function rather than a specific clarification on specific complaints. In short, while our complaints were specific the ECI response is generic and focused on diminishing the complaints and the petitioners," the Congress said.
In its letter to the EC signed by nine senior Congress leaders, including general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh, the party said, "We have carefully studied your response to our complaints. Not surprisingly, the ECI has given a clean chit to itself. We would normally have let it be at that. However, the tone and tenor of the ECI's response, the language used, and the allegations made against the INC compel us to submit the counter-response."
The Congress letter said that if the Commission grants a recognised national party a hearing or examines issues raised by them in good faith it is not an 'exception' or 'indulgence' but it is the performance of a duty required to be done.
"If the Commission is refusing to grant us a hearing or refusing to engage on certain complaints (which it has done in the past) then the law allows recourse to the higher courts' extraordinary jurisdiction to compel the ECI to discharge this function (as happened in 2019)," the letter said.
The Congress leaders, who had petitioned the EC alleging irregularities in the polls, said every reply from the EC now "seems to be laced with ad-hominem attacks" on either individual leaders or the party itself.
"The ECI's reply are written in a tone that is condescending. If the current ECI's goal is to strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality, then it is doing a remarkable job at creating that impression," the party said in its letter to the EC.
"Judges who write decisions do not attack or demonise the party raising the issues. However, if the ECI persists then we shall have no choice but to seek legal recourse to expunge such remarks," said the letter signed by Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupinder Hooda, Ajay Maken, Abhishek Singhvi, Uday Bhan, Partap Bajwa and Pawan Khera.
They also said that the "pattern" sought to be identified by the ECI in its reply is "disingenuous" as sometimes acting on complaints immediately is the key.
"If they are not redressed on the ground then they become redundant. And then the only remedy available is an Election Petition which is a lengthy process taking years to resolve. Thus, we approach the ECI with whatever information we have, and the ECI with the vast resources at its command, examines and reviews this information to see if the same is correct. Many times, the ECI has found our information to be correct. Other times, not so. But we do not name and shame the ECI for those moments after the Election is over," they said.
The Congress said if they were "bad faith actors", then they would never engage with the ECI to begin with. "We would focus on naming and shaming the Commission with examples from the ECI's own recent history which do not shroud it with glory," it said, adding that they would have never engaged in that case.
The Congress said it has sent over a hundred complaints against the prime minister and home minister, but "the ECI has taken action in precisely zero complaints, while calling our party president and former party president to account for their actions/speeches".
"We would point out how the ECI never published a dissent note, actively suppressing it instead, by a former Commissioner in this regard. We would point out that the ECI has almost always fought any move for transparency and increase in VVPAT verification numbers, with the same having to be ordered by the Supreme Court. We challenge the ECI to fact check the above since it finds the INC's misgivings to be based on phantoms," the Congress said.
In a strongly-worded letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the poll panel had said such "frivolous and unfounded" doubts have the potential of creating "turbulence" when crucial steps like polling and counting are in live play, a time when both public and political parties' anxiousness is peaking.
The BJP retained power in Haryana winning 48 of the 90 seats in the October 5 assembly polls.
