No-trust motion brought due to PM Modi's reluctance to speak on Manipur: Nitish Kumar

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Nitish Kumar on Wednesday blamed the reluctance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the Manipur issue in Parliament for the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition in Lok Sabha. The JD(U) supreme leader, whose party is likely to support the motion moved by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, also claimed that recent political statements of Modi smacked of «nervousness» in the BJP-led NDA and it was caused by opposition parties coming together to form the new coalition known by the acronym «INDIA». «What has happened in Manipur, the way women were stripped and paraded naked, is appalling.

The Centre should have come out with a statement. This is what parties in the opposition have been demanding in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha», Kumar told reporters here. «However, the government has maintained a deafening silence.

This was not acceptable (to the opposition) and hence they have brought the no-confidence motion», said the JD(U) leader who pulled out of the NDA last year. Kumar, who had hosted the first meeting of opposition parties here last month, scoffed at Modi's mockery of the acronym «INDIA» and the averment that the NDA will return to power after next year's Lok Sabha polls. «The name (INDIA) was agreed upon by all parties at the meeting in Bengaluru earlier this month», said Kumar, who also said they will keep saying these out of «nervousness».

He also taunted Modi for convening a meeting of the NDA on the very day the opposition conclave was held in Bengaluru. «Where is the NDA he is talking about? This was the name given to a coalition formed during the time of the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee whom the current dispensation seems to have forgotten. I was in alliance with these people from 2017 to 2022 and not a single