New Delhi: After Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will meet violence-affected persons in Manipur on July 8 to show solidarity with them.
According to party insiders, over the past two days Rahul Gandhi has been on a spree of meetings with the persons who have been at the receiving end of the system’s apathy. While Rahul met victims of the Hathras stampede in Uttar Pradesh and heard the woes of the railway locomotive engine drivers on Friday, on Saturday, he interacted with the victims of the Rajkot fire tragedy and the Morbi bridge collapse in Gujarat besides the party workers who were attacked by the alleged BJP-led goons.
His next stop is the north-eastern state of Manipur which has been in the news over the past one year due to the social strife that took the lives of over 221 persons and displaced around 60,000 persons who have been forced to live in the relief camps.
“Rahul was the first national leader to visit the state last year when violence broke out. He assured the people of all help. The PM never visited there. The situation in Manipur is still not normal. It needs a healing touch. The people are very happy over his visit on July 8,” AICC in charge of Manipur Girish Chodankar told ETV Bharat.
“Rahul wanted to convey a message to the state when he started his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from there. The people came out in large numbers to support us and gave us both the Lok Sabha seats in the state. This visit is to thank them,” he said.
According to party insiders, after becoming the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul wanted both the Congress MPs to get a chance to speak in the House. But only one of them, Bimol Akoijam, got a chance to speak on July 1. "On July 2, we pleaded that our second MP Alfred Arthur should also be given at least a minute to speak in front of PM Modi but he was not allowed to do so," said Chodankar.
During his maiden speech delivered very late in the night in the House, Akoijam had pointed at the absence of the Manipur crisis in the Presidential address and said a civil-war like situation where armed groups were moving around fighting each other prevailed in the state.
According to Manipur Congress Working President Mohammad Fajur Rahim, though the BJP was ruling both the Centre and the state, normalcy was still elusive in the area.
“There is a so-called double engine government in the state but there is no normalcy. Around 60,000 persons are still living in the relief camps. They need support from the Centre and want normalcy to return soon. The people had supported us in a big way after the Nyay Yatra and were excited over Rahul Gandhi’s visit. He will meet the party workers and the locals. A meeting with those living in the relief camps is also being planned,” Rahim told ETV Bharat.
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