Ex-servicemen too rally against Manipur Bills
Source: The Sangai Express

CCpur, September 29 2015: The Ex-servicemen (Army) League, Churachandpur chapter today joined the stream of protest that has engulfed the district ever since the State Assembly passed the three contentious Bills, taking to the streets their dissent against the Bills which they claimed would categorise them and their family members as foreigners.

The former Army men, many of whom had fought India's wars before their retirement, also submitted a memorandum to the President of India who is also the supreme commander of the country's armed forces following their rally.

Recently, the Manipur Legislative Assembly passed the Protection of Manipur Peoples Bill 2015 and two other co-related Bills.

Should they ever became Acts, all of them who had served and are serving the Nation for years together shall be termed as 'foreigners' or 'outsiders' in their own motherland, said the ex-servicemen's memo to the President.

They said, the so-called PMP Bill 2015 contains the most sinister and alarming clause as it entails that those person whose names are not entered in the National Registry of 1951, Census of 1951 and Village Directory 1951 shall be categorised as 'foreigners' or 'outsiders' .

Ex-servicemen rally at CCpur

To justify their claims, the memo gave three significant arguments and additionally maintained that if the criteria set forth by the Bills are effectively enforced to decide as to who is a native of Manipur, not a single tribal man shall be a native citizen of Manipur.

If National Registry 1951 is available at all, entry into it must have been made for those residing in the valley area alone as remote hill areas/villages were not reached totally due to lack of communication facilities on one part and negligence of hill areas on the other.

On top of it all, a single Deputy Commissioner was posted at Imphal to over-see the then Manipur Administration along with a few circle officers and the Manipur Police Organisation was headed by one SP, subordinated by a single DSP alone, said the memo and dubbed the National Registry of 1951 as nothing but a hoax in Manipur.

As for the Census 1951, the Ex-servicemen League said it is a fact that enumerators did not write names of persons in black and white but a piece of wood for one person or a token in the form of a dried vegetable corn for a person was taken.

'Can we claim those tokens as our forefathers?,' it asked and added, 'this is absurd/mystery ' .

Additionally the memo questioned the existence of a village directory.

In 1951 or till date, it is unknown that neither a Commissioner nor a Director for the Village Directory was functioning in Manipur.

Even if there was a Village Directory in the Valley area of Manipur, it must be a fictitious one with recent entries and not a genuine one, it declared.

They also questioned how and under what circumstances an Indian citizen who had served the Nation during his prime and fought the country's wars can be called 'outsider' or 'foreigner.' In case the Government of Manipur call bonafide tribals of Manipur as foreigners, how shall they surrender their ancestral land and properties which are the only means of their livelihood, pondered the memo further.

'May be these Bills are ultra-vires violating the spirit and letter of their fundamental rights.

These unconstitutional Bills are totally unacceptable and we are prepared to oppose them at any cost,' it added.

The ex-servicemen also recounted that the instant protest and agitation taken up by the tribal community ever since the Bills were passed by the State Assembly and declare that it is hard to be idle spectators of the gruesome incident wherein nine dead people killed with live bullets by the security forces are still lying together in a morgue, awaiting their burial till date.

'Though not affiliated to any political party or organisation but as ex-servicemen of the Nation, we support in toto any demand for betterment of the tribal people.

At the same time we are prepared to fight any sinister design to disintegrate the Nation and the country as Indians,' proclaimed the Ex-servicemen League whose strength in the district alone exceeds 3000 as per the Zilla Sainik Board Registry.