Modi to face no-confidence motion tomorrow

NEW DELHI: India’s lower house of parliament (Lok Sabha) would debate and vote this week a no confidence motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the deadly violence in Manipur.

Over 150 people have died and around 50,000 displaced in ethnic clashes that erupted in early May.

The ethnic tensions in the small state of 3.2 million people are seen as security and political failure of Modi‘s government, which will face a national election by May 2024.

Modi had not commented in public about the violence until videos showing two women being paraded naked and molested by a mob in Manipur sparked national outrage.

Then, Modi condemned the mass assault as “shameful” and promised tough action against the perpetrators.

Opposition parties have, however, disrupted the monsoon session of parliament which began on July 20 , to demand a detailed statement by Modi on Manipur in parliament, followed by a debate.

As head of the government, he will have to respond to the no-confidence motion before it is put to vote.

Modi‘s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a clear majority of 301 members in the 542-seat lower house of parliament, so the no-confidence vote does not pose a threat for his government’s atability.

This is the second time Indian PM faces a no-confidence motion since coming to power in 2014. In 2018, a Congress lawmaker brought a motion that was defeated after a 12-hour debate over the state of Andhra Pradesh, which was controversially split into two by Modi’s government.