Congress Member of Parliament Alfred Kan-Ngam Arthur questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not visiting violence-hit Manipur. The Congress MP was speaking in Lok Sabha during the debate on Constitution on Saturday.

Arthur, MP from Outer Manipur, spoke about his village’s (Shangshak Phunghon) importance in World War 2 in 1944 while recalling that during the the making of the constitution, the area was not represented properly.

“In 1950 Constitution came into being. That part of the country did not know what was happening.” Arthur said emphasising that the ‘pluralism’ is the core of India as a nation.

“Where was the Constitution on the December 4, 2021 when armed forces killed 6 civilians who had gone to work in mines,” he said invoking 2021 Nagaland killings, criticising the Defence Minister Raj Nath Singh of not taking responsibility for the deaths of the civilians.

“This country should hang its head in shame,” he said in an emotionally-charged speech. “Are we not part of this nation, Mr chairman,” he said.

Arthur spoke about Manipur violence too. “I do not need to remind this house what is happening in Manipur on May 3, 2023. Or what has been happening in last 19 months. I have clearly said before that as a citizen of this nation and as the member of the family that contributed for building this nation, it is my right to ask for justice,” Arthur said.

“Why is this till today that my Prime Minister, someone who this nation believes and someone who I also wish to believe, why is it till date he is not answerable to people Manipur. Is it too much to ask for me on behalf of people who elected me,” Arthur.

“Is my nation so weak that you cannot protect lives and properties of people in Manipur,” he said.

Not the first time

This is not the first time that Arthur has criticised PM Modi of not visiting violence-hit Manipur. In an emotionally charged speech in the Lok Sabha on July 30, Arthur urged Prime Minister Narendra Modito visit the violence-hit state.

“Can you not hear the cries of the women and children who cannot return to their homes?” he asked during a debate in the Lower House on the Budget 2024.

Lawmakers from the government and opposition sides are speaking in the debate against the backdrop of a bitter political face-off that marred the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, with the INDIA bloc moving a motion seeking the removal of Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.

The debate was initiated by Rajnath Singh on Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to reply to the debate today.

Earlier in the day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi invoked Veer Savarkar, saying he clearly stated in his writings that there is nothing Indian about our Constitution. The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said that they follow Constitution, while BJP’s book is Manusmriti.

Is my nation so weak that you cannot protect lives and properties of people in Manipur?

“BJP keeps attacking Constitution 24×7. We want to tell every poor person that you are protected by Constitution,” said Gandhi.

The Winter Session of Parliament began on November 25 and is expected to run till December 20.

Parliament Winter Session: The Lok Sabha  and Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day amid protest by opposition, minutes after the proceedings began on Monday. The session will now reconvene on Wednesday, November 27.

Presiding officer, Sandhya Ray adjourned the session in Lok Sabha till Wednesday soon after the lower house convened at 12 noon. The Congress and other opposition parties staged protests demanding a discussion on Manipur violence and bribery charges against the Adani Group.

Last week, Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men, and seven others were indicted for fraud by US prosecutors over their alleged roles in a $265 million scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure power-supply deals. The Adani Group has denied all allegations, calling them “baseless”.

There will be no session on Tuesday, November 26 – the Constitution Day.

Rajya Sabha adjourned too

The proceedings in Rajya Sabha were also adjourned for the day amid ruckus over the Adani issue. The opposition MPs in the upper house demanded a discussion over the issue of bribery allegations against the Adani Group. The upper house will now meet again on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla adjourned the session for an hour after paying tributes to departed members of the House, including two MPs who won the parliamentary elections this year. The session reconvened at 12 only to be adjourned due to protests and sloganeering by the opposition members.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post on X that as the Parliament session begins, the first step the government should take is to have a detailed discussion on the Adani saga which has the potential of tarnishing India’s image at the global stage.

We do not need monopolies and cartels to run this country.

“We do not need monopolies and cartels to run this country. We need healthy market driven competition in the private sector, which facilitates equal opportunities, employment and equitable distribution of wealth, catering to the inherent entrepreneurial spirit of India,” Kharge added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his customary address to the media before the start of the session, slammed the INDIA bloc for repeatedly disrupting parliamentary proceedings, ahead of the beginning of the winter session of the Parliament on Monday.

“Those rejected 80-90 times by people do not allow discussions in Parliament. They do not understand people’s aspirations. I hope new members from every party get chance in Winter Session of Parliament to share their ideas,” the Prime Minister said.

Prime MinisterNarendra Modi-led Union government has listed 16 bills, including theWaqf Act Amendment Bill, for the for the session which runs till December 20.

Five bills have been listed for introduction, consideration and passage, while 10 are for consideration and passage, according to the bulletin of theLok Sabha.

Parliament Winter Session: The Winter Session of Parliament is all set for a stormy start on Monday.

While the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government has listed 16 bills in the session’s agenda, the Opposition INDIA bloc has demanded discussions on various issues, including bribery charges against the Adani Group and the fresh wave of violence in Manipur.

Modi government has listed 16 bills in this session of Parliament. This includes five bills for introduction, consideration and passage and 11 bills for for consideration and passage.

The most important legislation in the session will be the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024. The controversial Bill, introduced in the Monsoon session of Parliament, aims to curtail the powers of the Waqf board, among others. The introduction led to a ruckus in the house, and the Bill was then sent to a Joint Parliamentary CommitteeNational Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured victories in Haryana in October and Maharashtra last week. The INDIA bloc managed to secure victories in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.

Ahead of the commencement of the Winter Session of Parliament on Monday, floor leaders of INDIA bloc parties will hold a meeting in Parliament House to decide the opposition strategy, sources said. The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on November 25.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge is expected to decide the strategy of the Opposition for the Parliamentary Session, they said.

The Congress and other opposition parties are expected to raise the Manipur issue and bribery charges against the Adani Group and corner the government in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Last week,Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men, and seven others were indicted for fraud by US prosecutors over their alleged roles in a $265 million scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure power-supply deals. The Adani GroupKiren Rijiju asserted that the union government is “ready to discuss any topic” while calling for a peaceful session of Parliament.

“The government is ready to discuss any topic. Our only request is that the House should run well and there should be no ruckus. Every member wants to participate in the discussion but the House should run well. To run the winter session well, everyone’s cooperation is needed and everyone’s participation is necessary,” Kiren Rijiju said after the all-party meeting in Delhi. The all-party meeting was attended by all floor leaders of political parties in both the houses of the Parliament.

The session which will run until December 20 will have 19 sittings. On November 26, Parliament will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution.

A drone attack by militants on Manipur’s Koutruk village on September 1 marks a phase of escalation of conflict after a relative lull of four months.

“She had bought a new phanek (sarong), along with her friends, with the money they earned from working in a nearby field. Wearing it, she had gone to her maternal home with her daughter for a feast,” said Sushil Ningthoujam, brother-in-law of Ngangbam Surbala from Phayeng, a village in Imphal West district of Manipur. It was the last phanek Surbala (31) would wear and the last feast she would ever attend.

She died on September 1 when alleged Kuki militants attacked Koutruk, a Meitei village located at a distance of about 10 kilometres from Phayeng, near the borders of Imphal West and the Kuki-Zomi-majority Kangpokpi districts. The militants used high-tech drones to launch numerous rocket-propelled grenades, killing Surbala and another villager and injuring 10 others, including Surbala’s 8-year-old daughter, and two police personnel. 

The attack marks a new phase in the ongoing conflict in Manipur that has rendered 67,000 people homeless (accounting for 97 per cent of displacement in South Asia), and claimed more than 226 lives, with 1,500 injured and 28 missing, since its beginning in May 2023. The recent incident proves that even after 16 months, Manipur remains politically unstable. Moreover, it is crippled economically, with high inflation and a 19.7 per cent unemployment rate among the State’s youth. 

On September 1, Manipur Police posted on X:“While drone bombs have commonly been used in general warfares, this recent deployment of drones to deploy explosives against security forces and the civilians marks a significant escalation. The involvement of highly trained professionals, possibly with technical expertise and support, cannot be ruled out. Authorities are closely monitoring the situation, and the police are prepared to respond to any contingency that may arise.” 

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But, on September 2, there was another attack in neighbouring Senjam Chirang village. It left three villagers injured.

Documents and books belonging to Nandeibam Ibohanbi’s family have been reduced to ashes.
| Photo Credit:
Ningthoujam Victor 

The use of drones in the attack will probably inspire the other side to use similar technology in the future, leading to further damage. While experts claim that drone jammers are in use in Manipur, the Koutruk episode points to a grave security lapse. “Village volunteers and security personnel would often fly their drones to check enemy movement or as a recce before attacks. The drone flights are usually foiled by signal jammers, effectively preventing escalation,” a village volunteer told Frontline. “However, it seems that this time the jammers were either not working or were intentionally switched off,” he said.  

Thangjam Nungshitombi stares at the compound which was once her home. 
| Photo Credit:
Ningthoujam Victor 

Koutruk, a hotspot of violence in the early stages of the conflict, has remained heavily guarded by village volunteers and State security forces. Constant firing in this foothill area caused most residents to shift to relief camps. However, in the last four months, with cases of firings and bombings in Manipur becoming almost nil, villagers were slowly returning home. 

Most of the villagers here are farmers and labourers, belonging to low-income groups. Their lives have been altered by the conflict, with farmers being forced to stop work in the fields for fear of being ambushed. On the one hand, their incomes have come down, and on the other, the prices of daily commodities are rising steadily. They are desperate to get back to their normal lives.  

The roof of Watham Tombi’s house has been blown off in the bombing.
| Photo Credit:
Ningthoujam Victor 

On the morning of September 1, Koutruk was on high alert after receiving intelligence about the movement of suspected Kuki militants in Bethel, a neighbouring village. At around 2:30 pm, the first shot came, followed by retaliation. The initial half an hour of the confrontation was purely a gunfight until three drones were noticed over Koutruk. “The drones started pounding bombs with precision at the bunkers and we had to retreat as we had no means to combat airpower,” a senior police official, who was on duty, told Frontline. The bombings started around 3 pm and continued till 7:30 pm. 

A bulletproof vehicle of security personnel is stationed in Koutruk.
| Photo Credit:
Ningthoujam Victor 

As the police retreated, attackers barged into Koutruk and burnt down five houses, including the half-finished house where the police were staying, vehicles, and borewell-drilling machines of the Public Health and Engineering Department that had been brought in recently to create new water sources. After intense bouts of gunfight between the militants and the police, the security personnel were able reclaim lost ground before dawn-break. But the damage had been done by that time. 

The flag of a political party lies among wreckage.  
| Photo Credit:
Ningthoujam Victor 

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Brothers Thangjam Bashan, 33, and Thangjam Kapil, 29, owned two of the houses that were set on fire. They lost everything, including clothes, utensils, certificates, money, jewellery, and furniture. “I do not know how my family will survive,” said Thangjam Leima, aunt to the brothers, and secretary of Meirapaibi Apunba Nupi Lup of Koutruk. Now all that remains of the houses, the result of years of labour, are charred tin sheets and charcoal. 

The recent attacks have shattered the illusion of normalcy and panicked villagers. With renewed fear building up among the residents, it is up to the police to restore confidence by stepping up security in the volatile border areas.

Ningthoujam Victor is a freelance photojournalist working on conflicts, environmental issues, and the fishing community of Manipur.