Assam chief minister and NEDA convener Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday stated that the distressing viral video of Manipur is condemnable; yet, one should not defame the entire state for that.
The chief minister directly claimed that Congress party is running a battle against Manipur, as the state is run by a BJP government.
“I am feeling bad, as entire state has been defamed for one incident. Entire condemnation should be restricted to that particular incident. Don’t put it like “Manipur Ka Ghatna”, only one incident has been reported, thus, why to blame the state for that one incident? Rahul Gandhi should apologize for defaming the state of Manipur,” said CM Sarma to the media here in Guwahati.
The chief minister also mentioned that the case was registered long back, video was available. However, it got leaked just before the day of parliament monsoon session.
“There is some kind of political things are involved. But, having said that, this is a gruesome incident, we cannot condone the incident whether the video has been leaked today, tomorrow or yesterday, irrespective to the date of the release of the video, the incident should be condemned, the culprits must arrested and punished as per the law,” added the NEDA convener.
Hitting back at Congress again, the chief minister claimed that such kinds of incidents are also being reported at Congress ruled states.
“Don’t make it weapon to defame or condemn Manipur or our Northeastern states,” Assam CM said.
Comparing the Manipur and Congress ruled Rajasthan, CM Sarma said that till the leakage of the distressing Manipur video where two women were paraded naked, the state of Manipur has witnessed 27 rape incidents, whereas, Rajasthan has reported almost 6,000 rape incidents.
Further, targeting the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, CM Sarma sought her data from the National Crime Records Bureau and urged her to compare the rape incidents with Northeastern states and West Bengal.
“CM Banerjee (Didi) has been the chief minister for long. Hasn’t there been any rape incident during her regime? Thus, I would like to urge not to give this gruesome incident a political colour,” added CM Sarma.
Meanwhile, taking to Twitter, the NEDA convener shared a thread of media reports on rape incidents in states namely Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam.
“These are a few recent instances of horrific crimes committed against women or tribals, even in my state Assam there have been similar incidents. Crimes, occurring anywhere, need to be condemned. But why only target Manipur & North East?” wrote the state chief minister of Assam.
