Challenge you to furnish details of visits by Union Ministers to Manipur: Congress to Rijiju

Congress on Tuesday took a swipe at the government after Union Minister Kiren Rijiju remarks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the cabinet ministers and ministers of state to visit northeast every 15 days saying we all know frequency of visits before any elections and dared him to furnish the details of the visits of union ministers in the last 97 days.

“During the No Confidence Motion in Lok Sabha, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju has boasted about the Prime Minister’s directions to Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State to visit Northeast every 15 days,” Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet.

“Yes, we all know about the frequency of visits of Union Ministers before any election. But it has been 97 days since the horrific ethnic violence broke out in Manipur. INDIA asks how many of Modi’s Ministers have been to Manipur?”

“We challenge you to furnish details of the visits of Union Ministers to Manipur in the last 97 days,” Ramesh, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP said.

His remarks came in the wake of the statement of Rijiju during the discussion on no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha.

While speaking in Lok Sabha, Rijiju said: “When our government was formed, in the first cabinet meeting, (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji made a group and said that every 15 days, five cabinet ministers and seven ministers of state must tour the Northeast. It is still going on, all the ministers sitting here have toured the northeast.”

“PM Modi has also given directives to officials to visit the Northeast and meet people. There is no meaning of ruling from Delhi, one can reach the people through service. You never thought about this. The prime minister has won the confidence of the people.”

He said that before 2014 people from the northeast faced racial discrimination in major cities of the country, including Delhi, but the situation changed after BJP came to power.

He also claimed that the Prime Minister also directed the police at the DGP conference in Guwahati to ensure the security of people from the northeast.

Indian National Devleopmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has been demanding for a detailed discussion on Manipur and also a statement in both houses of Parliament by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Earlier in the day, while speaking on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said that the Prime Minister has taken ‘Maun Vrat’ (vow of silence) on Manipur and through this motion we want to break his ‘Maun Vrat’.

He also said that the motion was brought in compulsion as for the justice to Manipur.

Ethnic violence erupted in Manipur on May 3 and since then hundreds of people have died while thousands have been forced to take refuge in the relief camps.