Gorkha bodies flay SAHILCA's stand
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 12 2022:
The Manipuri Gorkha Union (MGU), the Manipuri Gorkha Youth Association (MGYA), the Federation of Indian Gorkha Association (FIGA), Manipur Branch, the All Manipuri Mother's Association Gorkha (AMMAG) and the Gorkha Women Union, Manipur (GWUM) have strongly condemned the alleged reckless and senseless statement made through the resolutions of the meeting of certain CSOs of Kangpokpi held under the aegis of the Sadar Hills Chief Association (SAHILCA) whereby a selected few CSOs were stated to be the only civil society organisations in Kangpokpi.
Such immature and irrational statement made by SAHILCA has a potential to create enmity between the various communities residing in the region, the Gorkha bodies warned in a joint press release.
With the multiplicity of the various ethnic groups residing within Manipur and specifically Kangpokpi, it is illogical for SAHILCA, which represents only a single community, and thus, is not a representative of the multiple ethnicities residing in Kangpokpi, to make such reckless statements having widespread implications for all the communities residing in the region, it said.
Many communities are residing in Kangpokpi, with each of them represented by their own CSOs.
Taking a myopic view of the matter in hand without consultation or representation of the multiplicity of CSOs, is indeed an absurd idea, the Gorkha bodies remarked.
SAHILCA's resolve in fighting jointly for the welfare of the district is indeed a welcome step.
However, the fight must be in tandem with the resolve of the people of the district, with all the communities participating in the process, they asserted.
Also, the resolution to prohibit selling/leasing land is uncalled for and is not in the hands of the CSOs to decide.
The publicly elected Government is the best adjudicator for the same and only a legislative/executive resolution on the same can decide on the aforesaid matter, they pointed out.
The Gorkha CSOs are in full support of the Government's "War on Drugs" and are happy to announce that Gorkha inhabited areas are already poppy cultivation free, it claimed.
The CSOs working in a region must not work as a parallel form of Government.
They must rather work cohesively to aid and enhance the working of the Government within the ambit of the mechanism of 'Rule of Law', the Gorkha bodies advised.
Principles of peaceful co-existence and equality, mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression and non-interference in each other's internal affairs are the major principles within which activities of all the organisations in the region must be guided, they added.