Saturday, 13 September 2025
Saturday, 13 September 2025
Narendra Modi reached Imphal on Saturday on his first visit to Manipur since the ethnic violence erupted there in May 2023 and the Congress promptly criticised the prime minister’s“pit stop” at the northeast border state.
Modi travelled to Imphal after inaugurating the Rs 8,070 crore Bairabi–Sairang railway line from Aizawl, a project that will connect landlocked Mizoram to the rest of the country. "I am here at Mizoram's Lengpui Airport. Unfortunately, due to bad weather, I am sorry that I am not able to join you at Aizawl, but I can feel your love and affection even from this medium," he said.
The PM instead delivered his address virtually.
He flagged off three trains: the first Rajdhani Express between Aizawl and Delhi, and two others connecting Sairang with Guwahati and Kolkata, after which he flew to Imphal, the capital of Manipur.
The PM's Manipur visit comes amid repeated criticism by opposition parties for not visiting Manipur following the ethnic strife between the Kuki and Meitei communities, which has left over 260 people dead and thousands homeless since May 2023.
In a statement, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Friday said, "In line with his commitment to inclusive, sustainable and holistic development of Manipur, the PM will lay the foundation stone for multiple development projects worth over Rs 7,300 crore at Churachandpur."
Modi will also inaugurate multiple development projects worth more than Rs 1,200 crore from Imphal, it said.
Among the projects are the new, Rs 101-crore Manipur police headquarters and the civil secretariat, built for Rs 538 crore, at Mantripukhri in Imphal.
Modi is also visiting Manipur’s Churachandpur district, where he is to lay the foundation stone for various projects, including the drainage and asset management improvement project worth Rs 3,647 crore and the Manipur Infotech Development (MIND) project at Rs 550 crore.
Congress calls visit a “farce”
The Congress dismissed Modi’s visit to Manipur as tokenism.
“I am glad that he has decided, after two years, that it is worth visiting [Manipur],” said party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
“He should have gone long before. It is very unfortunate that he has allowed what is happening there to continue for so long and for so many people to be killed. That has not been the tradition of prime ministers in India,” she said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, in a post on X, wrote: “@narendramodi ji Your 3-hour PIT STOP in Manipur is not compassion — it’s farce, tokenism, and a grave insult to a wounded people. Your so-called ROADSHOW in Imphal and Churachandpur today, is nothing but a cowardly escape from hearing the cries of people in relief camps!”
He accused the PM of prioritising foreign trips over addressing the crisis at home.
“You made 46 foreign trips since, but not a single visit to share two words of sympathy with your own citizens,” he wrote,pointing out that Modi’s last visit to Manipur was in January 2022 during elections.
“Your ‘Double Engine’ has bulldozed the innocent lives of Manipur,” Kharge added, charging the BJP and the Union government with incompetence and complicity. “This hush-hush PIT STOP isn’t repentance. It’s not even guilt. You are organising a GRAND WELCOME ceremony for your self. It is a CRUEL PRICK to the wounds of those still suffering because of your own abdication of basic CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES! In the words of your own… Where is your RAJDHARMA??”
The word Rajdharma famously became part of India’s political lexicon when Atal Bihari Vajpayee used the word, apparently at then Gujarat chief minister Modi, in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002.
