Cong MLA in Kerala holds 24 hr 'silent fast' to protest against PM's silence on Manipur violence

An MLA of the opposition Congress in Kerala used silence as the mode of protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's lack of any statement, till date, regarding the ongoing ethnic violence in the north eastern state of Manipur for over two months that has claimed hundreds of lives.

Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan began his 24 hour long "silent fast" on Saturday morning in his Muvattupuzha assembly constituency in Ernakulam district to protest against Modi's silence on the Manipur issue.

"The Prime Minister is silent on what is going on in Manipur. His silence is being seen by everyone in the country as an approval of what is happening there.

"He was silent like this once in the past -- during the 2002 riots in Gujarat. So I wanted to use silence as a weapon to protest against the PM," the Congress MLA said after breaking his 'silent fast' on Sunday. Kuzhalnadan said that he wanted to opt for a protest method which also had an element of endurance in it and chose silence.

"It is not as easy as one might think. It creates a lot of mental stress when you want to say something and are unable to do so. It is the first time I ever did such a thing," he said.

The MLA said that he got more tired by Saturday evening of the fast than he ever did by making several speeches in a day. More than 100 people have lost their lives and over 3,000 injured since ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3, when a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Around 40,000 Central security personnel, besides the Manipur Police, have been deployed to control the violence and bring back normalcy in the state. Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley.

Tribal Nagas and Kukis constitute another 40 per cent of the population and reside in the hill districts.