Manipur Crisis: Congress Moves No-confidence Motion Against Modi Govt

Manipur Crisis: Congress Moves No-confidence Motion Against Modi Govt

In a desperate attempt to disturb the Modi regime, the opposition parties led by Congress have planned to bring the no-confidence motion.

By Rakesh Raman

The Congress party has moved a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha (parliament) against the government led by prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi. Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi today (July 26) moved the motion which is intended to dethrone the Modi government.  

However, the motion is not expected to succeed as Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoys the support of more that 330 MPs in the Lok Sabha. A similar motion was moved against the Modi government in 2018 also, but it could not succeed. 

The main purpose of the current move is to force Modi to speak in the parliament over his government’s failure to control increasing communal violence in the Manipur state of India. 

Actually, Modi has been evading opposition questions because as an illiterate man he cannot utter even a single sentence extempore or without the use of a teleprompter. It is likely that if Modi appears in parliament, he will not address the Manipur issue and rather speak randomly on some irrelevant topic.

The Indian state of Manipur is facing increasing state-sponsored violence aimed to harass, persecute, attack, and drive out people belonging to the minority Christian community. The violence includes arson, murders, loot, and rapes by the criminals who masquerade as Hindu protagonists. 

While the Modi-led Hindu government is not taking any action to stop the violence that began almost two months ago, the connivance of the state and national authorities in the crimes tantamount to ethnic cleansing.

[ Also Read: UN Human Rights, USCIRF Petition to Protect Human Rights in Manipur ]

As religious and caste conflicts have been increasing in almost all parts of India during the past about 10 years, ethnic violence erupted in the north-eastern state of Manipur between the Meitei people and the Kuki tribal community. 

Nearly 150 people have been killed and over 50,000 displaced in the recent spate of violence that began on May 3, 2023. According to a June 2023 investigative report for the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance, hundreds of churches have been destroyed in the conflict. 

Although it is being projected as a clash of two communities, actually it is a government-led violence to eliminate Christians from Manipur so that only Hindus could live in the state ruled by Modi’s BJP.

Since the Modi government has turned a blind eye to the violence in Manipur, the opposition parties are demanding a statement from Modi, although a statement in parliament has no meaning at all. 

A similar situation was seen recently when the opposition parties were demanding a statement from Modi in the parliament on the Modi-Adani collusion case related to a massive corporate fraud. Modi did not say even a word about the collusion and delivered a long rhetoric just to praise himself.

In a desperate attempt to disturb the Modi regime, the opposition parties led by Congress have planned to bring the no-confidence motion. A no-confidence motion is introduced only in the Lok Sabha (the Lower House of the Parliament of India). The motion is admitted for discussion when a minimum of 50 members of the House support the motion.

The House debates and votes on the motion. If a majority of the members of the House vote in favour of the motion, the motion is passed and the government is asked to vacate the office.

In the present case, if the opposition parties could prove their majority in the House, the Modi government will fall and Modi will no longer be the PM of India. However, with the support of the majority of members in the Lok Sabha, the Modi government does not face any threat.

The no-confidence motion may be taken up today for discussion.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He has also launched the “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” editorial section to cover the news, events, and other developments related to the 2024 election.