No Confidence Debate: Opposition lets Modi govt gain spotlight
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, August 10: In the words of the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the no confidence motion was brought to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi to face parliament. The prime minister’s attendance in parliament indeed has been on a downward sloping curve in his second term in the office. But the Opposition may have to seriously examine the gains from the no confidence motion.
The singular objective of the Opposition to push the no confidence motion was to force the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the mat over the unabated ethnic violence in Manipur. The Modi government indeed owed parliament to explain the ugly dance of deaths and violence in Northeastern state for over three months. Over 150 people have been dead, thousands displaced, while the internal disturbance in such a largescale surfaced in a sensitive border state after several years. Sickening viral video of the Kuki-Zomi tribe women paraded naked and sexually assaulted shook the conscience of the people across the world.
The Opposition, possibly because of incoherence in the debating skills, could not sufficiently put the Modi government under the lens of the gross security failure. Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah admitted that the refugees fleeing from Myanmar added to the raging ethnic fire in Manipur. Yet, the Opposition let go Shah on the evident failure of the government to manage the internal security amid gross intelligence failure, for the fact that the Myanmar’s border districts are reporting conflicts with the military of the country has been globally known and widely reported. Thus, the onus on the government is to explain the Myanmar conflict to spillover to India and add to the simmering ethic tension in Manipur with the dominant Meitei tribe going on a violent spree.
Former Army Chief Manoj Mukund Naravane in a recent interaction with media persons at the India International centre didn’t rule out the China factor in the raging violence in Manipur. It’s not a secret that the Myanmar’s ruling junta is supported by the Chinese Communist regime. In this backdrop, the Opposition failed to probe the Modi government’s lack of security preparedness to blunt the Chinese designs in the Northeastern states, particularly Manipur.
On the strength of number, the ruling BJP grabbed most of the eyeballs and used the opportunity to spotlight the achievements of the Modi government. Modi and the BJP MPs copiously banked on the insurgency history of the Northeast to blunt the Congress-led Opposition attack during the no confidence motion.
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