Rahul Gandhi was addressing a meeting organised by the opposition Congress-led UDF alliance in Kalpetta in Wayanad.
Published Aug 13, 2023 | 2:12 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 13, 2023 | 2:15 PM
Rahul Gandhi greeting the crowd in Wayanad; the crowd gathered for his meeting. (Twitter)
In his first visit to Wayanad after being reinstated as the MP representing the constituency, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched a stinging attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of not addressing the problem of Manipur even during the debate on the violence in the northeastern state in Parliament a few days ago.
Gandhi was addressing a meeting organised by the opposition Congress-led UDF alliance in Kalpetta in Wayanad on Saturday, 12 August, to welcome him on his first visit to Wayanad after his Lok Sabha membership was restored.
“He (Modi) spoke for 2 hrs 13 minutes. He laughed… he joked… he smiled… his Cabinet laughed, joked and smiled… They had a lot of fun. The Prime Minister spoke for two hours about everything… Congress, me about the INDIA alliance but spoke two minutes about Manipur,” Gandhi said.
Lashing out at Modi, Gandhi said the BJP and the government led by it “murdered the idea of India” in Manipur.
“You have destroyed thousands of families. You have allowed the rape of thousands of women. You have allowed the murder of thousands of people. And as Prime Minister of the country, you are laughing?” he asked.
The Congress leader opined that anyone who murders the idea of India cannot be a nationalist.
Escalating his offensive against Modi, Gandhi further said: “You spent two minutes talking about the murder of Bharat Mata. How dare you do this? How can you dismiss the idea of India?”
“What have you been doing for the last four months? Why have you not been there? Why have you not tried to stop the violence? Because you are not a nationalist. Anybody who murders the idea of India cannot be a nationalist,” he said.
He said there is a complete divide between the state of Manipur and “there is blood everywhere; there is murder everywhere; there is rape everywhere”.
He said the idea of India represents the idea of peace among its people.
“If there is violence, if there is hatred, if there is murder, if there is rape, that is not India. If in a state, the people are killing each other, murdering each other, raping each other, that is not India. India is love and affection between its people, India is the bringing together of people,” Gandhi said.
Recalling his speech in Parliament, he said that the BJP has killed the idea of India in Manipur.
“Manipur mein aapne ‘Bharat Mata’ ki hatya ki hai (You have murdered the idea of India in Manipur). You have destroyed thousands of families. You have allowed the rape of women. You have allowed the murder of hundreds of people. And as Prime Minister of this country, you are laughing!”, the Congress MP said.
He said Modi spent only two minutes talking about the murder of ‘Bharat Mata’.
“How dare you do this? How can you disrespect the idea of India? What have you been doing for the last four months? Why have you not been there? Why have you not tried to stop the violence? Because you are not a nationalist. Anybody who murders the idea of India cannot be a nationalist, anybody who murders the idea of India cannot love India,” he said.
He recounted the harrowing things he saw during his visit to violence-hit Manipur and said during his 19 years of political life, he had never come across such a situation.
Blaming the BJP for creating the deep division in the northeastern state, he said it may take at least five years to bring Manipur back on its feet.
Narrating the story of two women he had met in relief camps in the strife-torn state, Gandhi said one of them recollected how her son was murdered right in front of her eyes.
“One of the women, when I entered the room, was lying on the floor alone. Everyone else had some family member, but this lady was lying alone. So, I asked her about her family. She told me that she does not have anyone left,” Gandhi said.
The Wayanad MP said that when he asked the woman what happened to her family, she did not answer for some time.
“She went quiet and didn’t say anything. So, I held her hand and asked what had happened to her. She said to me — I was sleeping in my village, and I was sleeping in my house with my little son. My son was killed in front of my eyes. They shot him right in front of my eyes, and then I spent the whole night lying next to my son’s corpse,” Gandhi said recollecting the woman’s agony.
Her son died in her arms and she did not know whether to stay with the dead body or run away to save herself, the former AICC president said, adding, “After some time, she decided that her son was not going to come back. She described how she escaped and how she was shot at. And all this time, she was shaking while talking to me.”
Gandhi posed a question to the people if something so painful has happened to our mothers, sisters, or any other women sitting here.
“Her house was burnt. She had lost everything and only had a picture of her son,” he said.
Sharing a similar story of another Manipuri woman, Gandhi said he was giving only two examples, but thousands of people suffered such a fate in the northeastern state.
“She could see the images of her experience in her mind. I was imagining how I would feel if this happened to my mother or sister. She could not bear what she saw in her mind and fell unconscious. This is what the women of Manipur have experienced,” he said.
During his visit to Manipur, Shri @RahulGandhi spoke to the victims bearing the brunt of violence.
Listen to Rahul ji narrating the ordeal of a woman in Manipur's relief camp.
📍 Wayanad pic.twitter.com/iCpJP66W03
— Congress (@INCIndia) August 12, 2023
“I’ve been in politics for 19 years, and I’ve never experienced what I experienced in Manipur,” said Gandhi, recalling his visit to Manipur in June to the people displaced by the ethnic strife there.
“Somebody’s family members have been murdered; somebody’s house has been burnt. It is as if somebody threw kerosene on Manipur and set it on fire,” he said.
The Congress leader said in Manipur, before entering the Meitei area, he and the delegation led by him were told that “if any Kuki was there in our security team, he would be killed.”
“Similarly, before entering the Kuki area, we were told that if any Meitei was there in our security team, he would be shot dead. So, we had to remove Kukis from our security team before visiting the Meitei area. In the same manner, we had to remove Meiteis from our security team before visiting the Kuki area.”
“There is a complete divide in Manipur. There is blood everywhere, there is murder everywhere, there is rape everywhere in the state,” Gandhi said.
He said it took two months to break Manipur, and it may take five years for rebuilding it. “But we will do it. It is going to be the difference between the BJP and the Congress,” he said.
Anybody who “murders” the idea of India cannot love India, he further said.
Houses have been burnt, someone's brother has been killed, someone's sister has been raped and someone's parents have been murdered.
It is as if somebody threw kerosene all across Manipur and set it on fire.
: Shri @RahulGandhi
📍 Wayanad pic.twitter.com/9MTd36QApB
— Congress (@INCIndia) August 12, 2023
Gandhi also spoke about his bond with Wayanad, saying, “Now, I have come to my family.”
“Now, I want to ask you — suppose somebody tries to separate members of our family, suppose somebody tries to separate two brothers from each other, suppose somebody tries to separate a father from his daughter, do you think the relationship between the father and daughter will become weaker or stronger?”
“If somebody tries to separate a family, the family becomes stronger; if somebody tries to separate a father and a son, the relationship between the father and the son becomes stronger…the love between the father and the son becomes stronger,” he said.
He alleged that the BJP and the RSS do not understand what a family is.
“They don’t understand that the more they try to separate you and me, the closer we will become. They think — if we disqualify Rahul Gandhi, his relationship with Wayanad will break. No! If you disqualify Rahul Gandhi, his relationship with Wayanad will become even stronger, his love for the people of Wayanad will become even stronger, and the love that the people of Wayanad have for him will become stronger,” he said.
Gandhi alleged that the BJP aims to destroy the country.
“India is a family…they want to divide it; Manipur was a family…they tried to destroy it…thousands and thousands of families in Manipur have been destroyed by the policies of the BJP. So, they destroy families, they destroy the relationship between people. We bring people together, we strengthen families, we strengthen the relationship between people,” he said.
The Congress leader said his party and the INDIA alliance will bring Manipur back together.
“We will bring love back to Manipur. We will bring mutual respect back to Manipur. It took you two months to do it, and you took two months to burn Manipur it might take us five years to bring back love to Manipur, but we will do it. This is the fight between the BJP and the Congress,” he strongly asserted.
He also recalled his relations with Congress veteran Oommen Chandy, who died last month.
“I am here today after four months… I have come back to Wayanad as your MP. I am happy to come back, but I am also sad that I don’t see Oommen Chandy ji here. He was a leader of Kerala and Kerala showed the love and respect they had for him in his funeral. We are thankful for what he did for Kerala…the honesty and transparency with which he worked, and the love and affection that always guided him,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi on Saturday also spent time with the Toda community members in this hilly district in Tamil Nadu, dancing with them and visiting the temple of their deity.
The Wayanad MP visited them on his way to the constituency in Kerala when he stopped at Muthunadumandu the Nilgiris to interact with the tribal community members.
He was wished by the Toda women that he should return to this place as Prime Minister, even as Lok Sabha elections are slated for next year.
Presented with a traditional shawl upon his arrival from Coimbatore by road, Gandhi also participated in their dance and had a taste of their traditional food.
He visited the temple of the community deity and witnessed the traditional practices there.
Later, he witnessed the traditional sport ‘Ilavattakkal’, wherein young men use all their might to lift a round boulder.
After inaugurating the HT Connection at Dr Ambedkar District Memorial Cancer Centre at Nalloornad in the Mananthavady area of the Wayanad district of Kerala on Sunday, Gandhi alleged that there was a “perverted logic” behind referring to tribals as “vanvasis”, meaning “forest dwellers”.
“It is to deny that you (tribals) are the original owners of the land and also restrict you to the jungle. The idea is that you belong in the jungle and should not leave the jungle,” he said.
The Congress leader said that this ideology was not acceptable to his party as the word “vanvasi” was a “distortion” of the history and traditions of the tribal communities and an “attack” on their relationship with the country.
“For us (Congress) you are adivasi, the original owners of the land,” he said.
Gandhi further said that since adivasis were the original owners of the land, they should be given rights to the land and forests and “be allowed to have an imagination to do whatever they want”.
They should be given all the opportunities, to education, jobs, professions, etc, that are given to everyone else in the country, he added.
Gandhi said that the word adivasi meant a particular wisdom, an understanding of the environment of the earth we live on and a relationship with the planet.
He also said that the words “environment” and “environment protection” had become fashionable after modern society burned down forests and caused pollution.
However, adivasis have been talking about protecting the environment for thousands of years. “So we have a lot to learn from you,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
