It took 77 days and nationwide outrage for the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, to break his silence on the Manipur issue. But that is just where the problem begins.
Columnist Pratap Bhanu Mehta was on point when he wrote in The Indian Express that “whenever there is an atrocity the only thing worse than the PM not speaking is him speaking”. A look at what the PM spoke on the Manipur video incident explains why.
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In his statement, PM Modi deemed the Manipur incident as a “shame” for any civilised society, but was quick to point fingers at Opposition-ruled states like West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
For the Prime Minister, shifting the blame on an issue like women’s security is ironic. Rally after rally in the run-up to the 2014 elections, and later, the BJP hs sought to remind voters how the Modi government has delivered on uplifting and empowering women. Women’s security is an issue that the PM claims is very close to his heart.
Yet, the biggest atrocities during his tenure have usually been met with silence. As India’s champion wrestlers sat on a month-long fast protesting against BJP MP and outgoing Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Modi remained silent. His government, which first tried to crack down with force, made a few promises. But the government took no visible action to rein him in as he went about his business. “The law will take its own course,” was the usual refrain from BJP leaders. But the PM remained silent.
Modi and his government’s response in the 2017 Unnao rape case, where former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was accused of raping a minor and getting his family killed, was no different. He was initially suspended from the party, and later expelled only after huge protests. All through the episode, the PM maintained a stoic silence.
Manipur, where circumstances forced his hand to issue a statement, Modi hardly did any justice to it.
The UPA parallel
The blatant whataboutery by Modi and his ministers bears an eerie resemblance to the final days of the erstwhile UPA government in power. Sixteen months before the Congress-led government was evicted from power at the Centre, it faced an outrage that possibly had no parallels in recent memory. The Nirbhaya rape case triggered an outrage that no other crime against women had in the past and the Congress was in the thick of it.
People were angry, enraged with the response of the political class as a government battling multiple allegations of scams and corruption appeared to be desperate to protect itself rather than its citizens. Soon after the news of the victim’s death in Singapore appeared, the government tried to do something that it would regret later.
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Emergency policing laws (Section 144) were invoked, roads were blocked, metro stations shut down and water canons were used on students as the anger spilled over to the streets. Visuals of women protesters being brutally lathi-charged by authorities in the heart of Delhi are still fresh in memory over a decade on. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s televised address sought to soothe nerves, but an innocuous ‘Theek Hai?’, apparently addressed to the cameraman at the end of his speech, spilled water over the effort.
There were also some stray remarks from some Congress leaders (remember Abhijit Mukherjee’s “dented and painted” remark on women protesters in Delhi?) that only added fuel to the fire that eventually engulfed the Congress government in the 2014 parliamentary elections, leading to the party’s worst defeat in its history.
Also Read: ‘Will step in if govt does not act’: Supreme Court takes stern view of Manipur incident
Modi in familiar terrain?
Cut to the present and the Modi finds itself in familiar terrain. Only this time, he is on the other side of the fence.
The PM’s remarks on the Manipur video could have passed off as a measured response, though terribly late, to a sensitive issue that the government was finding tough to control — had it not been for the mention of crimes against women in Congress-ruled states. By politicising the issue, the BJP is showing similar signs that the Congress did in the initial days of the Nirbhaya protests.
The statement, dismissive as it appeared, was lapped up by other leaders of his party. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma slammed the display of “sudden immense interest in Manipur” by the Congress. “Between 2010-2017, when Cong ruled the State, every year there were blockades ranging from 30 days a year to upto 139 days a year. Petrol and LPG prices went up to Rs 240 and Rs 1,900 a litre during each of these blockades, translating into a complete humanitarian crisis. 2011 was one of the worst blockades in Manipur lasting more than 120 days,” the Assam CM wrote.
Also Read: PM Modi breaks silence on Manipur issue
Union minister Anurag Thakur was more specific in toeing the PM’s line. Accusing former Congress presidents Sonia and Rahul Gandhi of selective outrage, Thakur highlighted the alarming number of heinous crimes against women in states governed by opposition parties, such as Rajasthan, West Bengal, and Bihar.
Union Minister Smriti Irani took a dig at the Congress party for remaining a “mute spectator” on issues such as violence during West Bengal Panchayat poll, a disturbing violent video from Malda, and violence against women in Rajasthan. “What is extremely alarming is that a minister from Rajasthan who spoke up on crime against women in the state was unceremoniously dismissed by the Congress. Equally shocking is a video that is emanating from West Bengal’s Malda where two Dalit women are being beaten and stripped. Congress did not want to hear the truth about atrocities against women in the state of Rajasthan…Congress is a mute spectator to the killings of people during the West Bengal Panchayat elections all because it is hungry for collaboration with TMC,” she said.
Accountability: The sole travesty
The whataboutery with which the BJP, and Prime Minister Modi, who stormed to power with the promise to change the politics of “arrogance and indifference”, have sought to brush the Manipur issue under the carpet isn’t the only political travesty the Manipur issue has seen.
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The role of the N Biren Singh-led Manipur government, even accused of complicity that pervades its failure in controlling the situation from going out of hand, is even more tragic. There are multiple counts on which the Manipur CM has failed, even if one were to discount the Opposition’s allegations of complicity. The video incident, where a mob of men was shown parading two women naked, is a case in point. According to The Indian Express, the victims have claimed that they were virtually handed over to the mob by the policemen themselves, contradicting the official version.
Last month, as media reports suggested that the BJP leadership was contemplating a replacement for the CM, Biren Singh engineered a show of strength as people of the Meitei community blocked roads to prevent him from “handing over his resignation”. Singh’s signed resignation letter, torn and crumpled, later appeared online. All this, while fresh bouts of violence kept the state on the boil. So much for accountability!
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The National Commission for Women, led by BJP leader Rekha Sharma, which usually jumps on an opportunity to corner an Opposition-ruled state on such matters, also acted with remarkable slack in acting similarly on complaints from Manipur. Reports state that the Commission received multiple complaints of atrocities against women in Manipur, but failed to act on them. When cornered over the fact that the Commission had knowledge of a complaint of the women being paraded naked, Sharma appeared to tangle herself in knots. Her best defence — they clubbed the complaints and forwarded them to the Manipur government.
The happenings in Manipur do not bode well for a Prime Minister who stormed to power with the promise of change. Far from it, incidents like Manipur, and the free run that those accused of similar crimes have enjoyed under his government, are alarming, to say the least. While popularity and winning elections may be his, and the BJP’s sole criteria of governance, the government’s failure is abundantly clear.
So, while Modi’s BJP and the Opposition may well go on with business as usual as elections approach, accountability, or the absence of it, is likely to remain the biggest travesty in Manipur. And a blot that no amount of whataboutery can help wash off.