IT News
Imphal, April 20:
Manipur MP Dr. Bimol Akoijam has expressed his strong displeasure over the manner in which Members of Parliament from the state were denied the opportunity to speak during the recent passage of the President’s Rule (PR) proclamation in both houses of Parliament.
Speaking to the media, Dr. Akoijam clarified why he, along with fellow MPs Alfred Arthur and Leishemba Sanajaoba, remained silent during the crucial discussion. He explained that he had requested the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to defer the discussion by a day, citing that holding it at 2 a.m. would not allow for a meaningful or participatory debate. “Late-night discussions cannot do justice to an issue as sensitive and serious as Manipur’s,” he said.
However, the discussion proceeded at around 2 a.m., and in just about 40 minutes, the PR proclamation was passed. “Not only me but also MP Alfred Arthur, who was present in the House, was not allowed to speak. The Speaker allotted only 40 minutes in total,” he stated. He further added that even in the Rajya Sabha, Manipur’s lone representative, MP Leishemba Sanajaoba, was not given time to speak.
Dr. Akoijam raised concerns over why none of the elected representatives from Manipur were given a voice when a matter concerning their own state was being debated. “Why were we not allowed to speak about our own state’s crisis? This is a fundamental question about parliamentary democracy,” he said.
Addressing a broader issue, Dr. Akoijam remarked that the crisis in Manipur is often portrayed in a deeply problematic manner. “There’s a dangerous narrative being spread—as if barbarism and hostility are inherent in all communities of Manipur. This kind of essentialization of communal conflict is not only misleading but damaging,” he said.
He criticised certain BJP leaders who, according to him, repeatedly frame the ethnic violence in Manipur as something innate among its communities. “When they speak of the Manipur crisis, they imply that the communities are naturally inclined to fight each other. But history and scholarship have shown that communal violence, including Hindu-Muslim riots, are not inborn traits but the legacy of British colonialism,” he asserted.
Dr. Akoijam strongly condemned what he termed as a deliberate silencing of Manipur’s representatives in Parliament. “You write, or else you will be written. You speak, or you will be spoken about. We were not allowed to speak. Our rights as MPs were denied,” he said.
He also lamented that important questions regarding the suspension of operations and other critical issues were not recorded in the proceedings and did not receive any response. “The very purpose of representation was undermined,” he concluded.