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Rahul says Manipur broken up; Smriti Irani, ‘dynasty looted’

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the NDA Government of having “murdered” India in Manipur and said the state was today…

Rahul says Manipur broken up; Smriti Irani, ‘dynasty looted’

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi (ANI)

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the NDA Government of having “murdered” India in Manipur and said the state was today “broken” up, and appeared a distant picture from the way it was.

Participating in the debate on no-confidence motion on its second day in the Lok Sabha, the Congress leader recounted his meeting with women and children during his recent visit to Manipur, who were victims of ethnic violence lodged at relief camps.

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The victims of violence told him of personal losses and indignity they had suffered. India was murdered in Manipur, he added.

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He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not visit the state as “Manipur is not India for him”. Manipur does not “exist” today; it is divided into two parts.

“You have killed Bharat Mata in Manipur,” he said.

Gandhi said in the hearts of people of Manipur “you are not defenders of Bharat Mata; you are its killers”. He said, “You don’t love your country.”

He said the government was not using armed forces to control violence in the State because “you want to kill India in Manipur”. The armed forces could bring peace to the state in one day. “You are doing the same in Haryana now as you want to do it everywhere in the country,” he added.

The former Congress president said the government has to give up its arrogance to understand the pain of the people. “You have to listen to the voice of India,” he said.

The prime minister does not listen to people, he alleged.

The Congress leader said the mythical Lanka was not set on fire by monkey Lord Hanuman; it was demon King Ravana’s arrogance responsible for this.

Gandhi said his own arrogance was gone once he found it painful to walk 25 kilometres a day during his recent Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.

As BJP members told him he had left Ladakh in his Yatra, he said the yatra was not over; he would visit Ladakh soon. For now, he was proceeding to Rajasthan, he said, responding to Treasury Benches.

Woman and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, who spoke after Gandhi, replied to him saying, “You are not India; you define corruption.” She denied that Manipur was broken up.

The minister asked why Congress was silent when Kashmiri Pandit women were shamed and killed in the Valley. Women were shamed and their relatives killed during the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, she said. She said Kashmir had returned to normalcy only after the abrogation of Article 370 by the prime minister.

Irani said she had spoken to the Manipur chief minister about a case and action was taken and a CBI inquiry initiated. In Bhilwara, Rajasthan, a woman was gangraped and burnt in an oven. The government was ready for a discussion on Manipur but the Opposition ran away, she said.

Irani said the government’s toilet construction scheme had saved the honour of rural women, the jal jeewan scheme had brought drinking water to homes, while the Mudra scheme provided loans to crores of people. The Delhi government did not allow the operation of the Ayushman wellness scheme in the national Capital.

The minister said the Congress raised questions about industrialist Adani but how Gandhi’s brother-in-law photographed Adani. The Congress government had provided a Rs 72,000 crore loan to Adani, she said.

The Congress was controlled by “parivaar-vaad” (dynastic system). The dynastic family had deprived many farmers of their lands in the Amethi Parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, she alleged.

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