Meira Paibis, a women-led civil society group, hold a protest in Imphal, Manipur (File)
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to show with actions how to bring stability and peace in ethnic violence-hit Manipur - "mere words won't do anymore" - a day after a video of two tribal women being paraded naked by a mob in the northeast state sparked massive outrage and call for action.
PM Modi, in his first statement on the Manipur violence that started on May 3, said today no guilty will be spared, amid the opposition's frontal attack on him for not speaking up on Manipur for over two months since clashes between valley-majority Meitei and hill-majority Kuki tribe started over the Meiteis' demand to be moved from "general" to Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.
"...I assure the nation, no guilty will be spared. The law will take its course with all its might. What happened with the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven," PM Modi told reporters today before the first sitting of the monsoon session started.
Mr Ramesh, however, tweeted PM Modi's statement on Manipur "is too little, too late."
Ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kukis broke out in Manipur on May 3
Over 120 people have died in the Manipur violence and thousands have been internally displaced, with most living in camps under questionable hygiene conditions in monsoon.
"After more than 1,800 hours of an incomprehensible and unforgivable silence, the Prime Minister finally spoke on Manipur for a sum total of 30 seconds. After which, the PM tried to divert attention from the colossal governance failures and the humanitarian tragedy in Manipur by equating crimes against women in other states, especially those governed by the opposition while ignoring atrocities on women in states like MP, UP and Gujarat," Mr Ramesh tweeted, referring to Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, apart from PM Modi's home state, all ruled by the BJP.
"Firstly, he completely sidestepped the issue of the ongoing ethnic conflict. He has made no appeal for peace, nor asked for the Chief Minister of Manipur to step down. While he has commented on this one video that has surfaced, this is only one example of the hundreds of incidents of barbaric violence in the state of Manipur," Mr Ramesh said in the long tweet.
"Secondly, the PM tried to equate systemic and ongoing violence in Manipur with cases of crimes against women in other states. The perpetrators of these crimes have been arrested in Congress-governed states within 24 hours. In Manipur, it took 15 days to register an FIR [first information report] against unknown persons and today, 64 days later, for the Chief Minister of Manipur to claim that arrests have been made. There has been a complete and total collapse of law and order and administration in Manipur," the Congress leader tweeted.
"The Prime Minister and the Home Minister cannot escape accountability. The Chief Minister of Manipur should step down immediately. INDIA will continue to demand answers - to ensure a path towards peace and reconciliation in Manipur," Mr Ramesh tweeted, referring to INDIA, the newly formed opposition alliance, short for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.
The opposition has for long been demanding the resignation of Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who belongs to the BJP. Mr Singh last month announced he wouldn't resign after his supporters stopped him while he was going to hand over his resignation letter to the Governor.
The BJP-led centre has said it is ready to discuss the Manipur situation in parliament. Union Minister Piyush Goyal has slammed the opposition for "disrupting proceedings" despite the centre agreeing to discuss the issue.
"The Congress and the rest of the opposition parties disrupted the house proceedings even though the government made it clear that it is ready for discussion. It became clear from the attitude of the opposition that they came, making up their mind, that they will not allow the House to function," Mr Goyal told reporters today.
"Perhaps there is something wrong in their heart. They are worried because there were incidents of violence (during panchayat polls) in Bengal and also there are unfortunate situations in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan," the BJP leader said.
A day after the video went viral, one of the men in the mob, Heradas, was arrested today, more than two months after the incident. The 32-year-old was seen in the video, in a green t-shirt, the police said.
The police are trying to establish the identity of the other accused in the video through facial recognition technology. About a dozen teams are working on the case, the police said, though it is not clear why no action was taken for 77 days.