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Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-SCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Manipur, asserting that it was a long-standing "demand" of the violence-hit state that the Prime Minister should visit.
Speaking at a press conference in Nashik, Pawar said, "It was being demanded that PM Modi visit the state. It is good that he went there." Earlier in the day, Congress leader P Chidambaram criticised PM Modi's Manipur visit, accusing him of failing to apologise for not coming earlier and questioning the short duration of his stay. In a post on X, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Chidambaram claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "not even bothered" to visit Manipur and "did not apologise for not coming." "The Congress leader wrote, "In the 2023 riots in Manipur. 258 people lost their lives, 1,108 people were injured, 532 places of worship were damaged, 60,000 people were displaced, thousands of people are still in refugee camps today. For two years, Prime Minister Modi has not even bothered to visit Manipur," Chidambaram wrote. Amid a political row over the visit, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also took a dig at PM Modi. In a post on X, Ramesh criticised the PM for spending less than five hours in the state, questioning his commitment to addressing the plight of Manipur's people. "The people of Manipur have been undergoing tremendous pain, distress, suffering, and agony for the past 28 months ever since the state erupted. The people of Manipur have waited patiently for the PM to visit the state. He has finally obliged them today. But he was in the state, from landing till take-off, for less than 5 hours," he said. Highlighting the brevity of the visit, Ramesh further remarked on X, "The PM has the time (and the inclination) to spend days campaigning and travelling across the world. But is Manipur worth only so much to him? It is shockingly insensitive." He concluded with a Hindi phrase, "der aae par durust nahi aae" (PM's visit delayed, however, not adequate). This was PM Modi's first visit after an ethnic conflict erupted in Manipur in May 2023, and the discord between the Meitei and Kuki communities has persisted for a significant length of time. The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth over Rs 7,300 crore at Churachandpur and inaugurated projects worth over Rs 1200 crore in Imphal. Meanwhile, during his visit to Manipur on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to various ethnic groups in Manipur to shun violence and work towards restoring peace in the state. He stated that a new dawn of "hope and confidence" is emerging in the northeastern state. (ANI)
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