Daily Times

Dozens of opposition MPs walked out of India’s parliament on Thursday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was defending his record at the climax of a three-day no-confidence debate, prompting a furious rebuke from the premier. Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, who on Wednesday said Modi’s government was “set on burning the whole country”, was among the walkouts, broadcasters said. Modi denounced them, saying: “Those who don’t trust democracy are always ready to make a comment but don’t have the patience to hear (the rebuttal).” They would “speak ill and run away, throw garbage and run away, spread lies and run away”, he said, to cheers from his own benches.

“This is their game and the country can’t expect much from them.” The no-confidence motion was brought by the opposition over months of ethnic violence in Manipur state that has killed more than 150 people. But analysts see it as political manoeuvre ahead of a general election next year, when Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win a third term in power.

Its muscular appeals to India’s Hindu majority have proven a winning formula and he has already steered the BJP to two landslide victories over Gandhi and his Congress party. Gandhi, 53, is the son, grandson and great-grandson of three former Indian premiers.

The BJP has a large majority in the 543-member lower house and is expected to comfortably defeat the no-confidence vote, which it has dismissed as a headline-grabbing gimmick. Gandhi spearheaded the parliamentary attack on the government Wednesday, condemning what he said was Modi’s inaction over the Manipur violence.

Gandhi charged that Modi was “killing Mother India”.

The opposition leader was restored to parliament on Monday after the Supreme Court suspended his defamation conviction over comments criticising Modi.

Gandhi had been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in March in a case that critics flagged as an effort to stifle political opposition in the democracy. Modi’s party has been repeatedly accused by political opponents and rights groups of fomenting religious divisions for electoral purposes.

At least 152 people have been killed in Manipur since May, according to government figures, after armed clashes broke out between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community. The state has fractured on ethnic lines, with rival militias setting up blockades to keep out members of the opposing community.

Tens of thousands of additional soldiers have been rushed from elsewhere to contain violence, and a curfew and internet shutdown remain in force across Manipur.

Human Rights Watch has accused BJP-led state authorities in Manipur of facilitating the conflict with “divisive policies that promote Hindu majoritarianism”.

Modi faced a barrage of criticism from opponents for taking more than two months to speak about the conflict. He broke his silence in July after the publication of a graphic video showing a baying mob parading two Kuki women naked, saying that the incident had filled his heart with “pain and anger”.