AAP leader Atishi on Thursday termed "horrific" a May 4 video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur and hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying though he had time to visit foreign countries, he hasn't yet gone to the strife-hit northeastern state.
Tension mounted in the hills of Manipur after the video surfaced on Wednesday. The state has been witnessing ethnic clashes since May 3 between the majority Meitei community, concentrated in the Imphal Valley, and the tribal Kukis, occupying the hills. Scores of people have been killed in the violence so far.
Prime Minister Modi on Thursday said the incident of women being paraded naked in Manipur has shamed 140 crore Indians, asserting that law will act with its full might and no guilty will be spared. "My heart is full of pain and anger," he told reporters in his remarks ahead of Parliament's Monsoon session, amid his criticism by opposition parties for not speaking on the ethnic violence in Manipur.
Addressing a press conference, Delhi Women and Child Development Minister Atishi said, "Prime Minister Modi did not have the time to visit Manipur. He visited Japan on May 19, Papua Guinea on May 21, Australia on May 22, the US on June 20 and then France and the UAE. But he didn't go to Manipur. Even a delegation from Manipur kept waiting for him but he did not meet them."
"Not only is this video horrific, but it is heart-rending. The whole country watched the kind of behaviour that the women were meted out. It was worse than how animals are treated. But the BJP is not taking action against the violence," she claimed. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader claimed that one of the women told local media that she was paraded and gang-raped, but police, present there, didn't take any action.
"I want to ask the BJP what will you tell these women? I want to ask the prime minister and Home Minister Amit Shah, what will you tell these women and every woman of the country? In Manipur, people have been facing violence," she said. Attacking the BJP, Atishi alleged that the party is full of people who "misbehave with women" and named some leaders such as Kuldeep Singh Sengar and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
There was no immediate reaction from the BJP on the allegation. The Manipur Police on Thursday arrested one of the main accused who was seen in the video. Police had said a case of abduction, gang rape and murder has been registered at Nongpok Sekmai police station in Thoubal district against unknown armed miscreants. In a statement, they said all-out effort is on to arrest the culprits at the earliest.
Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani has said that she has spoken to Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh over the May 4 video. She has termed the incident "condemnable and downright inhuman".
