The leaders of the united Opposition front, known as INDIA, on Thursday wore black clothes in Parliament to protest the "silence" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the floor of the House over the Manipur issue.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge said, "The House is functioning. We are only demanding that the PM come and make a statement. But he is giving political speeches and is campaigning in Rajasthan. When he can go there, can't he come to the House for half an hour and make a statement? It means that has no interest or faith in democracy. He doesn't want to protect democracy and the Constitution. He is disrespecting Parliament."
Since the monsoon session of Parliament commenced on July 20, it has been marked by massive disagreements and arguments between the Opposition and the government, concerning the ethnic violence in Manipur. The focus of the Opposition's protest revolves around a distressing viral video that shows two women being paraded naked by a mob in the northeastern state.
The video's impact has been so significant that both houses of Parliament witnessed early adjournments from the very first day, as the Opposition demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's direct response to the matter.
In a bid to corner Prime Minister Modi and address the Manipur ethnic violence, the opposition parties took a decisive step today by introducing a no-confidence motion against the government in Lok Sabha. This motion was tabled by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi and BRS MP Nama Nageswara.
The Lok Sabha Speaker acknowledged the no-confidence motion and stated that he would schedule the debate after discussing it with all parties, following the parliamentary rules and procedures.
Although the BJP government is not threatened by the motion due to the comfortable majority of the NDA in Lok Sabha, the Opposition aims to push Prime Minister Modi to address the Manipur issue directly during the parliamentary session. The government has maintained that only Union Home Minister Amit Shah would be responsible for responding to a debate on the Manipur situation.
The Monsoon session started a day after the video depicting the horrific incident on May 4 went viral, sparking nationwide outrage. With the opposition MPs chanting slogans such as "Manipur Manipur" and "Manipur is burning," the Parliament has seen early adjournments since the session's outset.
Many Opposition leaders had staged a black-clothes protest in March as well to oppose the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha.