ASUK imposes total shutdown on October 15
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, October 12 2024: While declaring October 15, the day India annexed Kangleipak/Manipur in 1949, as 'Amamba Numit' or Black Day for the people of Manipur, the Alliance for Socialist Unity, Kangleipak (ASUK) imposed total shutdown on the day.

The shutdown, however, will not cover medical and emergency services, and religious ceremonies.

According to a statement of ASUK issued by publicity committee convener S Mangal, the total shutdown is being called to protest historical injustice, political marginalization and human rights violation of the people of Manipur under the suppressive Indian rule.

It said that October 15 remains a bitter reminder on the forced merger of Manipur into Indian Union and subsequent marginalisation of the once sovereign Asiatic nation to a Part-C state.

This status indeed was an act of dehumanization and nothing less than colonial subjugation, the ASUK said.

While recalling how India imposed Armed Forces' Special Powers Act-1958 (AFSPA) in Manipur, it said the pro-military law is a tool of oppression as it evident from innumerable people including women and children killed and victimised.

Under the Act, people of Manipur have been subjected to arbitrary arrest and rights abuses thereby reducing people of the region to mere testing or laboratory object for oppressive policies of India.

For 16 years, Tron Lady of Manipur' Sharmila launched world's longest hunger strike demanding abolition of AFSPA but India did not care.

Mahatma Gandhi launched hunger strike for India's freedom for 18 times with the longest for 21 days, ASUK recounted, adding that the British honoured Gandhi but India dishonoured Sharmila.

On the ongoing Kuki aggression, the ASUK said it is the last warfare of the colonial administration to uproot entire indigenous people of the region by igniting communal conflict.

As AFSPA could not eliminate the entire population, India might have resorted to communal conflict as a new strategy while considering people of the region as guinea pigs.

On the other hand, strategic importance of Manipur for India came to light after the Japanese reached Manipur and Naga hills during the World War ILas rightly pointed out by Asian anthropology expert professor Christoph Von Furer-Haimendorf (1909-1995).In view of the rising power of China and its influence in Myanmar, India might have viewed Manipur as a strategic battle-front.

Accordingly, India might have wanted Manipur to be an established loyalty to mother India by crushing indigenous communities.

The easiest way to achieve this goal is to trigger communal conflict and weaken communities, the ASUK said while maintaining that the shutdown is being called for bringing unity against systematic exploitation and to demand proper recognition of Manipur's historical and political significance.

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