Sonia Gandhi urges PM Modi to discuss Manipur situation in Lok Sabha
Sonia Gandhi made the demand during her brief conversation with the prime minister in the Lok Sabha on the first day of the Monsoon session.
According to Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the head of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha, Sonia Gandhi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday to discuss the Manipur situation in the House.
On the opening day of the Monsoon session, Sonia Gandhi raised the demand in a brief exchange with the prime minister in the Lok Sabha.PM Modi made a round to greet different heads of state just before the House convened for the day. On the first day of the Parliament session, leaders traditionally shake hands.
PM Modi spoke briefly with Gandhi as he approached the opposition leaders' bench.
Gandhi requested a meeting with the prime minister to discuss the violence in the northeastern state, according to Chowdhury, who overheard the exchange.
The prime minister stated that the episode of women being paraded naked in Manipur has disgraced 140 crore Indians during his customary engagement with the media in the Parliament complex prior to the session on Thursday. He further emphasised that the law will act with all of its might and that no guilty will be spared.
In response to criticism from opposition parties for not raising the issue of ethnic violence in the BJP-ruled northeast state, he told reporters at the Parliament complex before the commencement of the Monsoon session, "Today, as I am standing by this temple of democracy, my heart is full of anguish and rage.
"I want to reassure the nation's citizens that no one who is culpable will escape punishment. The law will enforce itself firmly and with all of its strength. There is no forgiveness for what has been done to these daughters of Manipur, he declared.
According to sources, the Manipur Police on Thursday detained one of the major suspects who was shown in a video taken on May 4 showing two tribal women being paraded naked and assaulted by a mob in a village in the Senapati district.
After a May 4 video appeared on Wednesday showing two women from one of the warring factions being paraded naked by a few men from the opposing side, tension increased in the hills of Manipur.
The video was making the rounds just before the Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) announced a planned protest march on Thursday to draw attention to their predicament.
Since May 3, there has been ethnic violence in Manipur.