The Trinamool Congress plans to bring a censure motion on the Manipur violence in the Bengal Assembly, State minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said on Monday.

Wondering as to why Home Minister Amit Shah who had a habit of speaking out on every trifle issue chose to keep mum on the atrocities against women in the North-Eastern State Chattopdhyay said “it is strange that for two months women of Manipur were subjected to so much of atrocities which is still continuing and this Government is speaking nothing about that.”

Chattopadhyay said that the “Trinamool Congress will bring a censure motion very soon in the State Assembly condemning the atrocities on women in Manipur.”

 He was referring to a viral video that showed two women of a minority community stripped naked and paraded among hundreds of people. They were subsequently gang-raped and their kin murdered.

Chattopadhyay made his statements soon after coming out of the all-party meeting convened by Speaker Biman Banerjee. The BJP however boycotted the meeting.

 Saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had time to make foreign trips but sparing no time for Manipur, the senior minister said, “Modi ji has time for foreign visits ... he lauds India in foreign land which is very good but he never cares to address the burning issues which are destroying the very social fabric of the country … it is strange that he took two months to make a speech on the Manipur violence and that too outside Parliament … and all these months the people of that State, particularly the women continued to suffer at the hands of the criminals.”

 Another senior Bengal minister Firhad Hakim too attacked Modi saying, “before coming to power the Prime Minister had promised Acchhe din (good days) for the people but after nearly ten years of his rule he has given bloodshed, price rise, unemployment and hatred … Manipur is a burning example of the deeds of his so-called double engine Government … so we want this double engine government to go and we will ensure that this government does not last beyond 2024.”

Earlier TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee told media men in Delhi that the BJP is trying to equate the situation in Manipur with other parts of the country which was a ploy to divert attention from the main issue. “They are telling that there is violence going on in Bengal also … but they should know that the Bengal Government did not have to suspend Internet service in the State … if they think that the situation in Bengal and Manipur are the same then why don’t they restore Internet service in Manipur too,” Banerjee said.