NRFM calls bandh on Sep 21
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 18 2022:
Challenging the Manipur Merger Agreement of September 21, 1949, the National Revolutionary Front Manipur (NRFM) has called a 24 hour bandh all over the State on September 21 .
A statement issued by the outfit's Information and Publicity Secretary Sanajaoba Meitei questioned if there is any provision/clause in the Manipur Merger Agreement which says that Manipur can never regain its sovereignty.
Saying that the Government of India is answerable to this question, the NRFM asserted that September 21, 1949 was the day when all the rights of Manipuri people were forfeited.
Categorically stating that the life or death of a Nation is determined by freedom, the outfit recalled that Manipur existed as an independent Nation for thousands of years.
Although Manipur was brought under British occupation after the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891, Manipur regained its sovereignty on August 14, 1947 .
However, the Government of India invited king Bodchandra to Shillong and the king was made to sign the Manipur Merger Agreement on September 21, 1949 under duress.
Since then, the Government of India has been forfeiting the freedom of Manipur, it alleged.
It then asked if there was any concurrence between representatives of India and Manipur before the Merger Agreement was drafted.
The Government of India must admit the political status of Manipur before the Merger Agreement was signed, it demanded.
The outfit maintained that any party or both the parties to a treaty can annul or withdraw from the treaty if it is no longer favourable to them.
There is no rule which says that a treaty once ratified should remain in force for eternity.
Merging Manipur into the Indian Union after obtaining the signature of a single individual is nothing but colonisation of the people of Manipur, it alleged.
The Government of India did not listen when king Bodchandra clarified that he was just a nominal head of the State and he had no political authority to sign the Merger Agreement.
It was this illegitimate Merger Agreement which gave birth to the armed liberation movement, it asserted.
India should retract the wrong step it took in 1949 and the India-Manipur political conflict should be resolved at the level of the United Nations, it asserted.
It informed that water supply, electricity, medical services and media would not be covered by the bandh.