The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) defeated the no-confidence motion comfortably with a voice vote in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, August 10. Drawing the curtains on the three-day proceedings, the BJP and its allies secured victory against the INDIA alliance, which had initiated the no-trust motion.
The newly-formed INDIA alliance said that the motion was moved to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make a statement on the deteriorating law and order situation in Manipur. The motion was introduced on Tuesday by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, who also initiated the debate. In an emotional speech, he said, “Our questions to the PM are clear. Why has he not visited Manipur? Why did it take him 80 days to say anything about Manipur and when he did speak, it was for a mere 30 seconds.”
Earlier, PM Modi addressed the House and spoke for two hours and twenty minutes, but Manipur found a mention in the speech only after an hour and forty minutes. Much of his speech was directed against the Congress, whom he slammed for creating disharmony with their contentious statements by speaking about a divided country.
Following the vote, a resolution was also passed against Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury by BJP MP Prahlad Joshi for repeatedly disrupting the proceedings. The resolution was passed by voice vote to place it before the Committee of Privileges and also suspend him from the House till the Committee submitted its report.
Speaking on Wednesday, Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP government under Modi of murdering India in Manipur. “You are not a patriot, you don’t love this country. You are traitors. You are not the caretakers of Bharat Mata, you are her killers. Bharat Mata is my mother. You have murdered my mother in Manipur.” NCP MP Supriya Sule called the BJP out for making “shameful blunders” and pointed out that the party had toppled nine governments in nine months.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who gave a two-hour reply to the no-confidence motion, questioned the timing of the release of the video from Manipur, which showed two women stripped, sexually assaulted, and paraded. Expressing pain at the crisis in Manipur, in which 152 people have lost their lives, Shah blamed the opposition for politicising the issue. He also said that the PM was very concerned and had been receiving regular updates on the situation and that 36,000 security personnel had been deployed after the violence broke out.
On day 3 of the proceedings, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched into a diatribe against the opposition saying that the parties that had formed the INDIA alliance were mostly fighting each other in various states. Referring to a comment made by DMK MP Kanimozhi on Draupadi, the Minister recalled a similar incident that happened with J Jayalalithaa in 1989 in the Tamil Nadu Assembly when she was Leader of the Opposition, adding that the DMK had heckled and demeaned her when her saree was pulled. Highlighting the Union government’s achievements, Nirmala said the government had taken immediate steps to counter the rising prices of tomatoes and said the price would see a drop shortly.
In a scathing attack on the Union government, Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra stated that in the face of inaction in Manipur, the sentiment in India is shifting, with a call for accountability and effective governance. Addressing the ‘there is no alternative’ narrative, she added, “Everyone asks if not Modi, who? After this inaction on Manipur, India will say anyone but Modi.”
Over the three days, the debate also moved off the rails from Manipur, when Union Minister Smriti Irani called Rahul Gandhi a misogynist for blowing a kiss when he was leaving the Parliament after participating in the debate. In another instance, Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde burst into a recital of the Hanuman Chalisa during his speech.
A day before the no-trust motion began, PM Modi said that the trust vote was not about the confidence in his government, but about the trust the opposition parties had in each other.