DMCC petitions PM, rejects administrative division on ethnic lines
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, August 08 2023:
The Delhi Meetei Coordinating Committee (DMCC), representing various Meetei organisations in Delhi, has submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling for urgent action to restore peace, order, and progress in Manipur.
The memorandum sheds light on the critical background of Manipur, its unique topographical configuration, and its rich civilizational past, while highlighting the ongoing Meetei-Kuki clash and its devastating impact on the people.
In the detailed memorandum, the DMCC provides insights into Manipur's geographical composition, where approximately 90 per cent of the area comprises hills and mountains, with the remaining 10 per cent being valleys.
This terrain creates a vibrant ecosystem that has been the homeland of co-existing communities for centuries.
It also highlighted the long civilisational past covering Palaeolithic Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods, followed by evolution into an Asiatic kingdom that continued for many centuries further leading to British occupation and annexation into the Union of India.
Among these communities, Meetei holds numerical dominance, followed by Meitei Pangal, while other tribal communities, namely Naga and Kuki, are categorised as scheduled tribes.
The memorandum traces historical instances of ethnic clashes in Manipur, emphasising the importance of democratic forces that previously managed to reconcile differences and uphold the need for collective co-existence.
However, the current Meetei-Kuki clash has resulted in immense physical, psychological, economic, and political damages.
According to official records, the clash, which began on May 3, 2023, has claimed 152 lives, including 56 Meeteis, 73 Kuki individuals, two central security forces personnel, and others.
Additionally, 26 Meeteis and one Kuki remain missing, while 696 individuals have been injured.
The conflict has also led to the destruction of 4730 houses, 253 churches, and 131 Meetei temples.
As a consequence, around 56,250 individuals have been displaced, seeking shelter in relief camps.
The economy has been severely affected, with thousands of homes and properties rendered irreparable, pushing several thousands of people into abject poverty.
Moreover, Kuki miscreants obstruct the free flow of essential commodities on national highways, intensified extortions from commercial vehicles passing through their barricades leading to soaring consumer goods prices.
The DMCC memorandum raises concerns about collusion between cross-border narco-terrorists and communal and chauvinist separatist elites, misleading innocent Kuki people to serve vested interests in wealth and politics.
These forces operate with impu nity, causing harm to the indigenous tribal people and exacerbating issues such as territorial occupation, illicit drug business, and illegal poppy farming.
They also obstruct Meetei pilgrimage and primordial religious shrines on mountains on mountains while demanding exclusive control over trade routes and business hubs in Kuki-dominated districts.
The committee accuses the Kuki armed groups of continuing their armed aggression against vulnerable Meeteis and engaging in economic obstruction and media propaganda to carve out an exclusive Kuki territory from Manipur.
The DMCC insists that any attack on Manipur should be seen as an attack on India's security and honour, urging the Government of India to take decisive action to restore order and stability in the region.
The memorandum expresses disappointment over the lack of effective control by the Government of India over the situation in Manipur for more than three months.
The DMCC questions whether the government is aware of the cross-border narco-terrorism issue and if formal investigations have been launched against Kuki armed groups operating under the Suspension of Operation.
DMCC then raised the demands for strengthening people's faith and trust that the Government of India stands to protect the territory and people from illegal and unregulated infiltration by foreign elements; that the Government India is the legitimate keeper of peace, and the champion of the innocent victims of communal mayhem and orchestrated armed aggression; prevent foreign infiltrators who through backdoor tactics become scheduled tribe and misappropriated the rights reserved for indigenous scheduled tribes; prevent illicit activities of narco-terrorists responsible for spreading drug menace in Manipur and other parts of India, destruction of forests and ecosystem, encroachment on reserved and protected forest lands.
It also demanded the Central government to prevent the chauvinist activities of communal elites responsible for fuelling communal conflict and disturbance against the idea of collective peace; restore people's faith and trust in the role of central security forces as the professional and disciplined force in maintaining neutrality while controlling disturbances.
The memorandum also demanded the Central government to immediately stop armed aggression by Kuki militants on the vulnerable sections; prevent cross border illegal infiltration, detect and deport illegal migrants who are hiding with or without forged documents; detect and confine Bur mese refugees in designated shelters on humanitarian ground; fight cross border narco-terrorism; abrogate the tripartite Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement with Kuki militants; replace Assam Rifles with some other more professional central force; provide adequate relief and rehabilitation to the victims of communal mayhem and orchestrated armed aggression; and refrain from facilitating any form of administrative division based on either ethnic lines or on a segregated and isolated ethnic identity.
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