Receive free Indian politics & policy updates
We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Indian politics & policy news every morning.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has swatted away an attempt by the opposition to hold him to account over the bloody three-month ethnic conflict in Manipur, easily surviving a vote of no confidence.
Opposition parties led by the Indian National Congress had not expected to win Thursday’s parliamentary vote, but called it in an attempt to force Modi to address the violence in the north-eastern state, which is governed by his Bharatiya Janata party.
Modi, who has not visited the north-eastern state since the ethnic violence broke out, nor spoken about it in detail, devoted a portion of his parliamentary speech to the conflict, which has killed more than 160 people. However, he did so only after using the floor to attack Congress at length in remarks that appeared to preview a bitter campaign ahead for the 2024 election, in which Modi’s BJP will be seeking a third term.
Several MPs, including opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who regained his seat this week after India’s Supreme Court suspended a defamation conviction against him, walked out of the legislature as Modi spoke.
“India stands with Manipur,” the prime minister said. “We stand shoulder to shoulder with the women of Manipur.”
Modi’s only previous remarks on the conflict had come in July when a video showing two women being paraded naked through the streets during a sexual assault in May came to light despite an internet blackout in the state, shocking Indians and prompting calls for action. Modi had responded by describing the incident as “shameful” and said that those guilty of the attack would be found.
India’s parliament is in its brief summer “monsoon session”, during which the opposition was meant to use Manipur as a fruitful avenue of attack after they succeeded in calling the no-confidence motion.
But while opposition MPs had hoped to corner the prime minister, analysts said Modi had succeeded in turning the debate against Gandhi, who the BJP sees as the heir of a dynasty that presided over corrupt governments for decades after India’s independence.
“I believe that it is God’s blessing that the opposition has brought this motion,” Modi said, referring to a previous no-confidence motion brought in 2018, which he had described as “not a floor test for us, but a floor test for them”.
He added: “We have given the country a scam-free government.”
Sugata Srinivasaraju, a columnist and author of a newly published book on Gandhi, said the Congress leader “walks into the trap the BJP sets every time”.
“If he had presented his ideas on Manipur and the general situation in the country in a cogent and logical manner, it would have made a better impression on the audience and the general public,” he said.
Analysts say India’s divided opposition, led by Congress, face steep odds in their drive to deny the BJP victory. Last month it joined about two dozen parties in forming the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, meant to oppose what they see as the BJP’s attacks on India’s democracy and secular constitution.
