Protesting the Prime Minister’s silence on the situation of ethnic violence in Manipur, calls to boycott Prime Minister’s monthly radio broadcast Mann Ki Baat were given by some citizens of the state.
A video of Manipur citizens trampling a radio transistor that was broadcasting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ went viral on social media.
The state’s violence has been ongoing since May 3, leading to at least 110 fatalities and displacing 60,000 people.
The radio protests were held at the Singjamei market in Imphal West district and Kackching market in Kackching district, around 48km apart, during the broadcast of the 102nd episode of the programme, a report by The Telegraph said.
Despite the long unrest, the Prime Minister failed to make any reference to the current situation in Manipur during the broadcast, leading to anger from people of Manipur.
At Singjamei, women lined both sides of the NH2 and raised slogans against Modi and the ruling BJP. They displayed posters that said “I oppose Mann Ki Baat”; “Shame Mr Modi. Not a single word of Manipur at Mann Ki Baat”; “No to Mann Ki Baat, Yes To Manipur Ki Baat” and “Mr PM Modi, No More Drama at Mann Ki Baat,” the report further said.
Binalakshmi Nepram, convenor of the Northeast India Women Initiative for Peace and founder of the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network, told The Telegraph that the “Mann ki Baat has become Maun ki Baat as far as Manipur is concerned”.
The Congress on Sunday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not speaking on the Manipur crisis in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio broadcast, and asked when will he say or do something about the “unending violence” in the northeastern state.
The Opposition party also demanded that an all-party delegation be allowed to visit the state.
In a tweet, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, “Narendra Modi ji, Your ‘Mann ki Baat’ should have first included ‘Manipur ki Baat’, but in vain. The situation in the border state is precarious and deeply disturbing.”
“You have not spoken a word. You have not chaired a single meeting. You have yet not met an all-party delegation. Looks like your Govt does not consider Manipur as a part of India. This is unacceptable,” he said.
“Your Govt is ‘Asleep at the wheel’ while the state burns. Follow the ‘Raj Dharma’ Act firm on all elements that disturb the peace. Restore normalcy by taking citizen groups in confidence. Allow an all-party delegation to visit the state,” Kharge said.
While slamming the prime minister’s “continuing silence”, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also hit out at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for issuing an appeal for peace in Manipur “after 45 days” and asked if the prime minister had “outsourced” the appeal to the organisation that “moulded him”.
“So one more Mann ki Baat but Maun (silence) on Manipur. The PM patted himself on the back for India’s great capabilities in disaster management. What about the entirely man-made (actually self-inflicted) humanitarian disaster that is confronting Manipur.
“Still no appeal for peace from him. There is a non-auditable PM-CARES Fund but does the PM even care for Manipur is the real question,” Ramesh said on Twitter.
