After being reinstated as a parliamentarian by the Supreme Court, Rahul Gandhi, India’s opposition leader, on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for dragging his feet in dealing with deadly violence in Manipur. At least 120 people were killed.
Rahul Gandhi delivered his first in-house speech after he was sentenced to two years in prison for defamatory remarks against Modi.
Gandhi, the scion of India’s leading political family, was restored to parliament on Monday after the Supreme Court suspended his conviction for defamation last week over comments critical of Modi.
Gandhi was sentenced to two years in prison in March in a case that critics flagged as an attempt to suppress political dissent in the world’s largest democracy.
Modi’s government is under pressure to defend its decisions on brutal violence in India’s northeast.
Gandhi’s fiery address to the chamber was part of a no-confidence motion calling for the government to step down as violence continued for months.
“You are throwing kerosene all over the country. You threw kerosene in Manipur, and lit a spark,” Gandhi said, to cheers from supporters and jeers from rival lawmakers.
Gandhi added, “You are bent on burning the whole country. You are killing Mother India.”
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is accused by opponents of fomenting the division for electoral purposes, and India will hold general elections early next year.
The ruling BJP has a large majority in the 543-member lower house and is expected to comfortably defeat the no-confidence vote, which it has dismissed as a headline-grabbing ploy.
“India’s army can establish peace in a day but you are not using it,” Gandhi told lawmakers.
If Modi does not listen to the voice of India, whose voice does he listen to?
Troops have been sent from other parts of India to control the violence, and curfews and internet shutdowns are in place in most parts of the state.
The 53-year-old is the son, grandson and great-grandson of three former prime ministers, starting with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.
The Congress was once India’s dominant political force, but Gandhi led it to two heavy defeats against the BJP and his nationalist appeals to the country’s Hindu majority.
Gandhi and his allies are trying to forge a grand coalition of smaller parties ahead of national elections next year, in which Modi will seek a third consecutive term.
At least 120 people have been killed in Manipur since May in armed clashes between the majority Hindu Meitei and the predominantly Christian Kuki community.
The state has been fractured along ethnic lines, with rival militias building blockades to keep out members of rival communities.
Modi has been criticized by opponents for taking more than two months to talk about the clashes after the clashes began.
The no-confidence debate is scheduled to end after the Prime Minister’s speech on Thursday.
