India’s Modi appeals for peace in Manipur, months after ethnic clashes erupted in the state

By KRUTIKA PATHI and ASHOK SHARMA
Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed for peace after opposition lawmakers had called for a no-confidence vote, accusing him of staying silent as a northeastern state governed by his party convulsed in months of ethnic violence. Modi raised the conflict in Manipur state some 90 minutes into his speech in Parliament on Thursday, in response to the no-confidence motion — and only as opposition lawmakers staged a walk-out in frustration. It was Modi’s first statement about the violence in Manipur, where clashes since early May between two dominant ethnic groups have killed over 150 people and displaced more than 50,000. After the opposition walkout, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies easily defeated the no-confidence motion.