Students' association organises discussion prog
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 28 2018:
MSAD organized a discussion program on the present socio-political and economic status of Manipur under the topic "Identifying Colonial Settlers: A Perspective on Manipur Society through the Lens of Israel-Palestine Conflict." The program was organised in connection with the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians.
MSAD claimed that in India, the Kashmiris face a similar plight under the Indian occupation.
The voices of the Kashmiris for freedom from India are answered with pellets and bullets resulting in disfigurements, blinding and loss of thousands of Kashmiri lives.
More than a hundred of the population have been killed and many more injured and blinded in this year's crackdown on the Kashmiri population.
Under similar circumstances, the people of Manipur have been living a life of terror and uncertainty under India's occupation since 1949.Deterioration of the economy monopolized by outsiders, forced disappearances, fake encounters, rapes and murder of indigenous women and men, etc.
continue to reek Manipur, it claimed.
There has been unchecked migration of non-Manipuris taking place in Manipur and the whole of the "Northeast" region.
Many non-Manipuris are being transferred in an organized manner from various parts of the country and with their number in Manipur escalating each and every single day, the fate of the people Of Manipur is at stake.
In Tripura, the indigenous population has been already reduced to a minority in its own space with little representation, no economic power and no social/community agency.
The association mentioned that the Indian Government has come up with a bill (The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016) in its parliament which will give citizenship rights to all the foreigners from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc who have migrated to the Northeast till now.
MSAD, as a collective voice of the student community of Manipur, is all for safeguarding the demographic structure of Manipur or else the days are not far away when Manipuris might suffer the same fate as that of the Palestinian people.
MSAD is of the view that the non-Manipuris staying in various part of Manipur are the result of State-sponsored migration to Manipur, the result of a constant attempt to change the demographic structure, assimilate the indigenous; identities and cultures through this settler population and various other agents, a project executed and framed by India to colonise and "nationalize" the space that is Manipur.
The recent clash at Khurai between the people of Manipur and the outsiders/settler; is nothing but a manifestation of the larger political development happening under Indian rule over Manipur since 1949, it claimed.
MSAD further urged the people of Manipur to stand united and fight the common oppressor and also urged the international community to stand united and give its solidarity to the rightful claim of Manipur.