New Delhi: One of the significant outcomes of the recent general elections was thrown up by a strife-torn Manipur which sent to the lower house of Parliament two new faces.Two sitting MPs of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were outrightly rejected by the voters of the north-eastern state, both in the hills and the valley districts, due to the party’s failure, both at the Centre and in the state, to ensure their safety during the over a year-long ethnic violence.One of the first time MPs, A. Bimol Akoijam, had hit the national headlines a month ago due to a fiery maiden speech in the special session of Parliament. It was Manipur’s moment at midnight.Akoijam might have been granted time by the Speaker only close to midnight after the people in that faraway border state had gone to sleep, but he stood his ground, and succeeded in articulating at the Lok Sabha the deep disappointment and discontent of the people of his constituency, and the state, at the Narendra Modi government for ignoring them while their homes burnt, near and dear ones killed, their businesses vanished, and the state now separated on ethnic lines.Over 66,000 people of Manipur have been staying at the relief camps for over a year now while the Prime Minster refused to visit the state, Akoijam reminded the House.On July 30, it was time for the other first time MP from Manipur (Outer), Alfred Kan-ngam Arthur, to shine. His speech was a response to the union budget.Arthur, who had famously urged the government to “save Manipur” and thereby “save the country” during his oath-taking, extended that thought while taking part in the debate. He highlighted that the union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman didn’t extend any help to Manipur, and added that along with the violence, the people are “suffering from the worst floods” in the last 35 years.“My state has been in the news for all the wrong reasons for the last 15 months. I have gone through the Budget Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has placed before the House. I think she fails to understand that at this juncture, Manipur is the lowest per-capita-income-bearing state and has the highest inflation. How do you expect a state that is lowest in income and paying highest prices to survive?” Arthur added.Reminding the House that over 60,000 people have been stating in relief camps under terrible conditions for the last 15 months, he asked Sitharaman, “Can you not hear the cries of the women and children who cannot go back to their homes?”In his fiery speech, the Congress MP also underlined, “I am from the Naga community in Manipur. We have stayed neutral to this (ethnic) conflict (between the Meites and the Kukis) in letter and in spirit. We have not taken sides with anybody thinking that by being neutral, we would one day usher in peace.”Arthur held up his family’s stellar contribution to India, recalled his uncle Major Ralengnao (Bob) Khathing, a Tangkhul Naga from Manipur who had secured Tawang for India in 1950 without shedding a drop of blood. Khating, later accorded with Padma Sri, went on to become the first tribal person to be made an ambassador (to Myanmar) by the central government. “My family sacrificed their lives not to see this day. We are all Indians”.Arthur said, “I have been sent to the Parliament by my people with complete trust” and “not to listen to fictitious figures that is brought to this august house.”A product of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, the articulate Opposition MP also added, “This nation I have been brought up to believe is bigger than individuals…I have grown, played with, wondered around with, studied with, with wonderful friends across different races, different religions, different communities. And yet, I had never felt in my life a need for saying that I am a Christian. I don’t ever want to ever speak out that I am a Christian, a Hindu or a Muslim, I should not have had the need to. Today why am I having this fear and this need to express my desires of wanting to be a free Indian within this nation’s rules and laws?” he asked.He was scathing in his attack of the chief minister N Biren Singh whom the union home minister Amit Shah has refused to replace in spite of a growing demand both in the hills and the valley for it. “Every day, the words that come out from his (CM’s) mouth are that of beating, killing, and violence. What is this? Is this my country?”He took a dig at the rush of the ministers of the Modi government to both the hills and the valley areas of Manipur since it came to power in 2014. “Since the NDA government came to power in 2014, there has not been a single day or week without a union minister visiting Manipur. Where are they now, after May 3, 2023?”Later taking to X, deputy leader of Opposition and a fellow MP from the Northeast, Gaurav Gogoi, said, “Our second MP from Manipur makes a necessary and powerful intervention on Manipur inside the Parliament. Congress will continue to raise the issues of Manipur and the Northeast inside the house. This speech is a much (must) watch”.As per official records, the violence that broke out between the Kuki and the Meitei ethnic communities on May 3, 2023, has claimed 224 lives. At least 60,000 people in that border state have since been displaced; a large section of them still living in relief camps. Many have since fled their neighbourhood and escaped to Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya. With the loss of home and hearth, the future of such Manipuris, needless to say, is caught in a haze.
