Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 14 2009:
While paying deepest homage/respect to all the martyrs and freedom fighters of Manipur on equal footing without prejudice, irrespective of creed or caste, Meiteis of Kukis, the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) has decried the alleged prejudice manifested by successive Governments while paying obeisance to the martyrs.
In a press release issued by its information and publicity secretary Lenin H Kuki, the KNO accused the successive State Governments of flouting the minority's (Kukis') social and cultural rights by not giving due recognition to the heroic deeds and selfless sacrifices of the great Kuki leaders and warriors for the cause of the people and the land.
Quoting Col LW Shakespeare, then DIG of Assam Rifles, that "the Kuki Rising of 1917-1919 was the most serious military involvement in the Northeast", the KNO marvelled at the alleged nihilistic attitude of the successive State Governments by not giving the Kukis their due 'share' and 'recognition' till date.
Asserting that not only civil and political rights but social and cultural rights too were essential for social cohesion, mutual understanding and mutual co-existence in a liberal-democratic society, the KNO informed that it has been successfully publishing the glorious past of the Kuki people in a book entitled Zalengam: The Kuki Nation, the copies of which have been placed in reputed university libraries across the globe including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, JNU, DU, NEHU et al.
Asking the State Government not to play a janus, ignominious role vis-a-vis the Kukis anymore, the KNO confided its firm belief in the importance and power of the 'historical truth' and 'cultural identity' of the Kuki people.
The fortitude and tenacity of the Kuki martyrs and warriors continued to inspire the KNO in its obligation to restore Zalen-gam to its former status and glory which was the birthright of the Kuki people, it said.
The KNO pledged to pursue its goals unflinchingly through means which are noble and democratic without compromising the integrity and commitment demonstrated by the Kuki forefathers.