Another lie on Government portal : Feeding lies and more lies
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 07, 2024 -

It is not a question of many, but Manipur which should object and strongly so with a sense of conviction.

Anyone vaguely familiar with the history of the Tangkhuls in Manipur or Ukhrul, now bifurcated into Kamjong and Ukhrul district, will laugh at the idea of an Anglo-Kuki clash at Longpi or Nungbi village in Ukhrul and credit ought to be given to news portal Ukhrul Times for bringing this up, a story which The Sangai Express carried with due courtesy as its lead story in the 6th November edition and datelined, Ukhrul November 5.

How did the words, ‘Anglo-Kuki War at Longpi (Nungbi) 1917-1919’ enter the Government website amritmahotsav.nic.in under the Digital District Repository section ?

A question which Imphal should raise with all the seriousness it deserves for this is nothing but a gross misinterpretation of facts and entering such a false narrative in the Government archive is bound to give an erroneous narrative of the land and her people.

The question is, was it an oversight or can one read a deliberate hand for letting the error creep in ?

The Government of India is answerable for this gross error and it is only Imphal which is placed to impress upon the Centre to rectify the error.

The question is whether Imphal has it in them to present the case of Manipur and the affected people, particularly the people of Longpi (Nungbi) effectively before the Centre.

Only time will tell whether the State Government has woken up to this and is willing to take things up with the Centre to set right the wrongs, and this is where it would do the State Government to remember the strong voice of opposition raised by none other than the United Naga Council against the attempt to erect an Anglo-Kuki War Memorial gate or memorial site at a place which the UNC says does not come under the Kukis.

And it goes without saying that the Kukis are well known for laying false claim and declaring any place as their ancestral land, such as on Mount Koubru or how Mount Thangjing was found changed to Mount Thangting.

Even today the attempts made to give Thangjing a Kuki presence can be seen in the very attempt to erect a Cross atop the said mountain.

Or as questions have been raised, was it a case of the Ukhrul district administration feeding the wrong information to the Government of India to name Longpi as one of the places where the Kukis came in clash with the British ?

That the fabricated inclusion of Longpi as one of the places where the Kukis clashed with the British should come at this time when many have questioned whether there was really a war between the Kukis and the British should say so many significant things.

And this observation should be made in the face of the ongoing clash between the Meiteis and the Kukis when concocted narratives have been fed to other parts of the country and abroad, a point perhaps best underlined by the fact that it was no one other than the Mizoram Chief Minister who raised the call for a Christian country in the region by bifurcating territories from India, Myanmar and Bangladesh while addressing a gathering at the USA.

While it remains to be seen whether the Government of Manipur will take cognizance of the gross error which has the potential of giving an official stamp to the false narratives that have been doing the round, the first point should be to see why and how such a gross blunder was allowed to enter the website of the Government of India.

It is such false histories which will go a long way in distorting the facts about the indigenous people of the land.

A point which the Government should take note and accordingly act.

Along with trying to rectify the gross blunder it is also important to find out if there was a design behind the act of cooking up a false history.

This is where Manipur needs to be very, very cautious and the important question is whether the people who swear by the idea of Manipur have come around to the reality that there are some elements who have been working overtime to give a sort of an official stamp to the false stories that are being scripted or have been scripted.

The task ahead is tough but not impossible and the only thing needed is sincerity in approach to the task at hand.

And this is where Imphal would need to keep its ears and eyes open and listen to ideas and proposals even though such ideas may not always be to its liking.

Apart from this, Imphal should have the gumption to present its side of story convincingly to Delhi.

This is what leadership should be about.