All indigenous people must oppose CAB: CorCom-I
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 07 2019: The CorCom has categorically stated that indigenous peoples of WESEA or the so called North East region must oppose the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) 2016 with all available resources and strength.

A statement issued by CorCom Coordination Committee Convenor I Chaoren on the occasion of the committee's 8th foundation day (July 8) asserted that the Government of India (GoI) has been pursuing several policies all aimed at assimilating all the indigenous people of WESEA to mainland India but their nefarious design is being held at bay by the revolutionary movements raging across the region.

Now, GoI has revised these policies to completely swallow the whole region, claimed Chaoren and added that these policies of racial assimilation is also aimed at ending the irreconcilable conflict between India and WESEA.

GoI has been working to transplant their surplus population and other outsiders in WESEA so as to completely overwhelm all the indigenous peoples.

Since the Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) was abolished in 1950 which was enforced then to check influx of foreigners from East Pakistan (Bangladesh), there has been unceasing influx of non-local people, claimed the RPF leader.

Following alarming growth of non-local population at Jiribam and neighbouring Assam, non-local people have usurped even political power in these places, Chaoren remarked.

He observed that GoI's policies of racial assimilation grew more acute and sharp after BJP was elected to power in 2014.Hindu Nationalists of India have been always dreaming of a pan India where there is no place of religious, linguistic and ethnic minorities.

As testified by CAB 2016, BJP has been working relentlessly to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians coming from neighbouring countries and settle them within the country.

There is no reason why the indigenous peoples of Manipur and WESEA should bear responsibility for the historical event that took place in 1947, asserted the CorCom convenor.

CAB is a means to fulfil this historic responsibility of India but it poses serious challenge to the indigenous peoples of WESEA for CAB has all the potential to completely destroy the whole indigenous population together with their unique cultures, traditions, languages and faiths within a very short period, Chaoren warned.

While paying homage to all the martyrs who have laid down their lives in the course of the revolutionary movement, the convenor also conveyed gratitude to all the people who have been standing firmly for the movement.

The convenor's statement also gave an account of how Manipur was allegedly forcibly merged into the Indian Union on October 15, 1949 even though a democratically elected Government was already set up in Manipur for the first time in Asia.

On account of sustained suppression of the region politically, economically and socially, the region remains quite backward and it has been rendered dependent on India in several aspects.

In addition, all the indigenous peoples are facing serious threats of complete extermination.

With majority of the indigenous people accustomed to dependency, the social structure has been breaking apart.

The State's political power has also been wrested by foreign power/country, he alleged.

Chaoren claimed that only independence and self-rule can free the people from the misery of bondage.

Even as the people of the land have been waging a sustained armed liberation movement, GoI has been using brute military force to crush it.

Indian military forces have killed thousands of innocent people and India is now notorious for rampant human rights violation in Manipur WESEA, it alleged.

Comment