In India, a video of two naked women being assaulted in public shocks the country. The events occurred in May in the state of Manipur, in the northeast of the country, where an ethnic conflict has plagued the region for more than two months, with more than 140 deaths. Narendra Modi, who has remained silent since the start of the violence, condemned the assault, stating that this crime “shames the entire nation.”
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With RFI’s New Delhi correspondent, Sébastien Farcis
In the video, dozens of men armed with assault rifles advance down a rural road. They push two completely naked women, who they mistreat and grope as if they were trophies or prey. One of them is later gang raped, off camera.
“My heart is full of anger and pain”
Manipur’s ethnic conflict has been tearing the local population apart for two and a half months. But this short video, which has just surfaced on social media even though it dates back to May, has suddenly shocked the country.
And he has forced Narendra Modi to react: “My heart is full of anger and pain, what happened to the girls of Manipur cannot be forgiven. It is a shame for our country, and the guilty will not go unscathed”, promised the first Minister.
Two months later
The crime was perpetrated by members of the Meitei ethnic group, predominantly Hindu and dominant in the plains, against Kuki women, a predominantly Christian ethnic group from the mountains: the two groups dispute, among other things, access to land in the hills.
The events took place on May 4, 2023, at the beginning of the violence, but the video did not go viral until Wednesday, July 19, probably because the internet had been cut off for more than two months for security reasons.
The opposition is calling for the resignation of the regional government, led by Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP party. The president of the Supreme Court maintains that this violence against women is “simply unacceptable”, and has promised that “if the government does not act, we will”.
