Youth Congress stages protest during PM Narendra Modi’s Manipur visit

The Manipur Pradesh Youth Congress Committee staged a protest in Imphal today coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state after nearly two and a half years of ongoing ethnic unrest. Party members attempted to march from the Congress Bhawan towards Kangla but were stopped and detained by security forces.
During the protest, demonstrators carried an inverted portrait of the Prime Minister, calling it a symbolic act of condemnation. Addressing the media, Manipur Pradesh Youth Congress president Wahengbam Anand said Modi’s visit had failed to address the crisis that has devastated the state since May 3, 2023. He asserted that the visit was aimed at showcasing development projects rather than offering solutions to the prolonged conflict.
Anand argued that had the Prime Minister truly come to resolve the crisis, consultations would have been held with all political parties, civil society organisations, and stakeholders across the hills and valley. Instead, he said, the visit was a political move designed to mislead the people.
The Youth Congress president highlighted that the conflict has displaced lakhs of people, left thousands as orphans and widows, and forced thousands more to live in relief camps under difficult conditions. Despite this humanitarian crisis, he said, no concrete measures were announced by the Prime Minister during his public addresses.
Anand remarked that the people of Manipur had hoped for a decisive intervention from the Prime Minister after such a long absence, but his silence on the issue has only deepened public disappointment. He described the visit as “a complete failure” that ignored the suffering of the people and reduced the occasion to an empty political exercise.