NEW DELHI: A video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur and the alleged gang-rape of one of them has shocked the country, prompting a livid censure by the Supreme Court, which nudged PM Narendra Modi to slam the violence for the first time in 75 days.

Hundreds of churches have been burnt in a communal twist to an ostensibly ethnic standoff in Manipur, which borders Myanmar.

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud summoned the government’s top law officers on Thursday to convey that the court was “deeply disturbed” by the video showing the women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted in strife-ridden Manipur.

The chief justice gave the Centre and Manipur governments an ultimatum to either bring the perpetrators to book or step aside for the judiciary to act.

CJ Chandrachud said that it did not matter that the video was not a recent one, but rather recorded an incident that occurred in May, when the violence initially broke out.

“What matters is that this is just simply unacceptable… This is the grossest of constitutional and human rights violations… We will give the government a little time to take action or we will take action,” he warned.

Indian PM breaks silence

Mr Modi had studiously kept silent on the gory violence that has left 150 people dead, police arms caches looted and women raped in 75 days. He finally spoke about the BJP-ruled state ahead of the parliament’s monsoon session starting this week.

He expressed anger and said the incident had shamed Indians and promised that the perpetrators would be brought to justice. “Narendra Modi spoke about a sexual crime in Manipur that occurred on May 4 and went unreported as far as the public was concerned — but which was known all along to the authorities in the BJP-run state government, who did nothing about it for over two months,” The Wire said. It is being suggested that the old video surfaced only now because of the total clampdown on the internet in the state.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2023