NEW DELHI: As was decisively expected, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comfortably sailed through the no-trust vote in the Lok Sabha brought by the opposition by a mere voice vote on Thursday after three days of heated and high pitched speeches and heated exchange of words by both the ruling and opposition members. 

Out of the current total of 539 members of the Lok Sabha who were to vote in the motion, the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alone has a number of 301, more than the majority mark of 270, while its allies include 31 more votes. It was expected that YSRCP with 22 members and BJD's 12 would also be backing the government. On the other hand, the opposition of the Congress-led INDIA alliance that had brought the motion has a number of only 143. 

This is the second time PM Modi faced a no-confidence motion, the first one was introduced in 2018 which was over granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh, which was also defeated on the floor of the house.

Even as PM Modi delivered his speech on Thursday replying to the motion, halfway through, MPs from the opposition of Congress-led INDIA bloc were heard chanting 'Manipur, Manipur' urging him to reply on the ethnic violence in the northeastern state and seeing that PM Modi continued with his attack on opposition parties, they staged a walkout complaining that there was no reference to Manipur in the first 90 minutes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reply on the debate.  

During his speech in reply, PM Modi first said that the motion was like the blessing of God who is very kind to them and usually speaks through some medium. He also said that the no-confidence motion in 2018 was like good luck as Congress lost the elections and they won for the second time and expressed confidence that they would return to power for the third term after the Lok Sabha election scheduled next year.

PM Modi said that the people of the country had lost all confidence in the Congress party and due to their arrogance, they are not able to see the reality on the ground. He also targetted Rahul Gandhi's politics of 'Mohabbat ki dukan' saying that in reality, they run 'loot ki dukaan' and 'nafrat ka bazaar' referring to partition, emergency, atrocities and appeasement politics.

The opposition parties of the INDIA alliance had moved the no-confidence motion against the NDA government on July 26, after virtually stalling the ongoing Monsoon session, (which began on July 20) for several days insisting on PM Modi's statement over the ethnic clashes in strife-torn Manipur and refusing any discussion without it, and it was taken up for discussion from 8 to 10 August, but the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. 

After the opposition had walked out, speaking on Manipur, PM Modi said that peace shall soon return as the government is doing everything possible to resolve this challenge. He also said that all the guilty would be punished. "I assure the people of Manipur that the state will again witness progress," he added. 

During the three days of discussion on the motion, high-pitched speeches and heated exchange of words were witnessed between the opposition MPs who made the issue of Manipur their focal point, and the ruling MPs who discussed several different issues. 

The motion was initiated by Congress MP from Assam, Gaurav Gogoi who in his opening speech sought to ask, why did it take PM Modi, over 80 days to finally speak on Manipur and that too only for only 30 seconds, and why has he not visited the troubled state till date? 

In later speeches made by opposition party members including TR Baalu of DMK, Supriya Sule of the NCP, Sugata Roy of TMC, Rajiv Ranjan of JD (U) and Farooq Abdullah of the NC all of them repeated the same points and slammed the PM's silence on the issues,  calling it a 'maun vrat' over the northeastern state's state of affairs. 

Speaking on the second day of the debate, a senior leader of Congress Rahul Gandhi made a very scathing attack on the government saying, 'You have set Manipur on fire' and also pointed his barb on Home Minister Amit Shah saying, "You sprinkled kerosene in Manipur and then lit a spark."

During his 37-minute speech, Rahul Gandhi accused the government of destroying 'Bharat Mata' and retorting that the ruling party members were 'traitors' drawing a very sharp reaction from Shah and from Minister of Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs Smriti Irani.

In his speech, Shah accused Rahul Gandhi of creating a 'drama' when he visited Manipur when the government was ready to facilitate his visit to affected areas like Churachandpur and levelled several charges of scams during the UPA regime. He also urged the various clashing ethnic groups in Manipur to come to the table to have a dialogue and end this conflict.