When Congress MP from Inner Manipur, Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, made his debut speech in the Lok Sabha near midnight on Monday night, he was speaking to a nearly empty House, but he nevertheless made his mark with a fiery speech that captured the anguish of the people of Manipur, living in conditions of virtual civil war, who had sent him to Parliament to be their voice.
Prof Akoijam, in easily the most forceful speech by a Manipuri parliamentarian in decades, came out all guns blazing against the NDA government for its neglect of the ethnic violence-hit state, expressing anguish over the absence of any reference to Manipur in President Droupadi Murmu’s address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament.
“This is not a simple absence. It is a reminder of the ‘rashtra chetana (national consciousness)’ which excludes people,” Prof Akoijam said, adding that this was a reminder that there is a continuity between the colonial and post-colonial period in India, as regards heartland India’s attitude towards the North-East.
“You must realise that more than 60,000 people are languishing in relief camps in wretched conditions for the last one year… 60,000 people homeless is not a joke.
Over 200 people have died. There has been a civil war-like situation where people, armed to the teeth, are roaming around and fighting each other, defending their villages and the Indian State is a mute spectator to this tragedy for one year,” Prof Akoijam said.
Every inch of Manipur was covered by central armed forces, yet 60,000 people were rendered homeless, and thousands of villages were destroyed, he pointed out.
“Our prime minister remains silent, not even uttering a word, and the President’s address failed to mention this. This silence is not normal,” Prof. Akoijam said, askiing: “Is this silence communicating to the people of the North-east and particularly Manipur that you do not matter in the Indian State’s scheme of things?”
Referring to political psychologist Ashis Nandy, Prof Akoijam said colonialism is “a state of mind, it is a psychological phenomenon”.
“Today, we are observing a day where we implement new criminal laws, seemingly to discard colonial heritage… This continuity (of colonialism) is shown by neglecting the tragedy of a state which is the 19th state of the Union,” he said.
Slamming the BJP’s nationalism, Prof Akoijam said it was “sad to see a nationalist party like the BJP being comfortable with the silence on Manipur’s tragedy”.
“Keep your hands on your heart and think about the homeless, the mothers and the widows. Think of them and then talk about nationalism,” he said.
“The hurt, the anger has thrown a nobody like me to be part of this temple of democracy, beating the BJP cabinet minister. Think about the pain… I will keep quiet the moment the Prime Minister opens his mouth and the nationalist party says that Manipur is a part of India and we care for the people of that state,” said Prof Akoijam, an associate professor at JNU, New Delhi, who entered politics in the wake of the outbreak of the Meitei-Kuki conflict in May last year. He defeated Manipur minister Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh in the Lok Sabha elections by over 1 lakh votes.