If PM Modi does not respond on Manipur: Congress MP over no-confidence motion

July 30, 2023 1:50 pm

New Delhi: Congress MP Manish Tewari in an interview with PTI on Sunday said the united Opposition had no other option than to bring the no-confidence motion in the Loksabha as PM Modi made a ‘cursory’ remark on Manipur just before the commencement of the Monsoon Session. If PM Modi does not respond to Manipur in Parliament, it would be a travesty, Manish Tewari said. The Congress already clarified that the no-confidence motion is not about the numbers which are in favour of the NDA — but to compel PM Modi to issue a statement on the Manipur situation in Parliament. This is also not the first time the opposition brought a no-confidence motion against PM Modi government. In 2018, a year before the Lok Sabha election, the opposition moved a no-confidence against the NDA which NDA won and also won the Lok Sabha election the next year.

On a question of the BJP saying what happened in 2018-19 will happen in 2023-24, Manish Tewari said, “If history repeats itself once, it is a tragedy and if it does so twice, it is a farce.”

‘No-confidence motion should be taken up first and then other business’
The Congress MP said when a no-confidence motion is accepted, it should be taken up first and all bills passed after the no-confidence motion’s admission in the Lok Sabha are “constitutionally suspect”. “What has happened in Manipur and what is continuing to happen there is absolutely reprehensible. There is a BJP government in the state, there is a BJP government at the Centre. Therefore, somebody needs to take responsibility,” Tewari said.

‘If PM Modi does not respond to Manipur in Parliament…’

If PM Modi chooses not to respond to Manipur, it would be a travesty, Manish Tewari said. “The motion states: ‘this house expresses want of confidence in the council of ministers’ and the reason for this has been publicly articulated ad nauseam for the past one week. So under those circumstances, if the prime minister chooses not to respond to Manipur it would be a travesty,” Tewari said.

The government could have accepted the adjournment motions which the opposition tabled every day and a minister can reply to those. “But the government chose not to accept them. Under these circumstances, if the prime minister could speak outside Parliament and say that the developments in Manipur have made our heads hang in collective shame then what was the hesitation and diffidence in coming and addressing Parliament on the same issue.” the Congress MP said.