Amit Shah Questions Timing Of Release Of Manipur Video; Congress Calls It Shameful

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday questioned the ‘timing’ of the video of the May 4 incident, in which two Manipur women were stripped and paraded naked by a mob, that surfaced on social media on July 19, a day before the Monsoon session of Parliament began. He said the video had come out days after it was shot and said if people were in the know of it, they should have handed it over to the police and the authorities for early action on it.

“Had the video been made available to the Manipur Director General of Police instead of being circulated on social media, it would have helped nab the culprits in time,” Amit Shah said while intervening in the debate on the no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha.

“Why did it emerge a day before the parliamentary session? Nine people were identified, arrested, and are facing trial since the video came to light,” he said.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, however, said that it was ‘shameful’ that the home minister questioned the ‘timing’ of the release of a video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur. Ramesh also alleged that Shah was ‘only accepting his own incompetence’ by claiming that intelligence agencies did not know about the existence of such a video.

After Shah spoke in Lok Sabha during the debate on the no-confidence motion, Ramesh said, “It’s absolutely shameful that the Home Minister is questioning the ‘timing’ of the release of the horrific video from Manipur.”

“By claiming on the floor of the Parliament that the intelligence agencies did not know about the existence of such a video, he’s only accepting his own incompetence as the Home Minister of India. He’s also inadvertently admitting the absolute unworthiness of the Chief Minister of Manipur,” he posted on Twitter.

Earlier in the day, during his two-hour speech in Lok Sabha, Amit Shah said the incidents in Manipur are ‘shameful’ but doing politics over them is even ‘more shameful’.

“I agree with the opposition that there is a cycle of violence in Manipur… Nobody can support such incidents. Whatever happened is shameful, but to politicise those events is even more shameful,” Shah said.

He appealed with ‘folded hands’ for an end to the three-month-long cycle of violence in Manipur and urged warring Kuki and Meitei communities to hold talks.

The minister said 152 people were killed, 14,898 people arrested and 1,106 FIRs registered since violence erupted on May 3.

Meanwhile, Lok Sabha adopted a resolution read out by Speaker Om Birla appealing for peace in Manipur that was enthusiastically supported by the NDA members in the presence of the opposition