Opposition politicising Manipur ethnic violence, says Amit Shah

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Union home minister Amit Shah led the government's charge against the Opposition's no-confidence motion on Wednesday. Shah slammed the Opposition for «politicising» the ethnic violence in Manipur and demanding a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said there was no such precedent. He referred to incidents of ethnic violence of 1993, 1994, 1997 and 2004 — when Congress and United Front governments were in power — and said no prime minister had given a statement in the House and clarifications were left to home minister and ministers of state.

«We are not quiet. I have been saying from Day 1 that allow me to speak in the House and give a statement. But they want to politicise the violence.» Shah condemned the horrific video of the two women paraded naked during the violence at B Phainom village in Kangpokpi district on May 4, calling it a «blot on society».

However, he questioned the timing of the video going viral. «This is a very unfortunate incident and nobody can condone it. This idea did not come to me, but a question was raised by the friends in the media — why did this video come just one day before the beginning of Parliament session? If someone had this video, shouldn't they have given it to the police? Why would anyone make it viral?» he said.

Shah defended his government's response to the violence and said the PM had followed the developments closely and called him up at 4 am once and even woke him up at 6.30 am. «There have been 16 video conferencing calls. We flew in 36,000 security personnel, the chief secretary was changed.

The DGP was changed. An advisor was brought in from Surat,» Shah said, adding the President's rule was not imposed as the state was cooperating. Shah