Refusing to furnish details : Skeletons to hide ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 09, 2024 -

If there is nothing to hide then there is absolutely no reason for the Kuki Chiefs’ Association, Manipur to come out so strongly against the order of the State Government to give detailed accounts of the villages from 1964 to the present.

Or is it a case of the villages having come up furtively ?

This is a question which only the Kuki chiefs can answer, but don’t let it ever be forgotten that there is a Government in place and documentation is necessary for any human settlement to exist under a Government.

On the other hand, to many, the stand of the Kuki chiefs will not come as too big a surprise in the face of the loud stand adopted by Manipur against illegal immigrants.

It is with a reason why the Government had taken the decision not to grant recognition to any settlements having less than 50 households.

This was announced by Chief Minister N Biren on the floor of the Assembly in reply to a query raised by Congress MLA K Ranjit on August 3, 2022, long before the ongoing ethnic clash erupted in May, 2023.

The stand of the Kuki chiefs has also given that much more room for the demand to implement the National Register of Citizens with 1951 as the base year, while the Government has deemed it more proper to fix the cut off year at 1961.

Either way there is a reason in the call for NRC getting more and more audible and a reason can also be read clearly into the refusal to the Kuki Chiefs’ Association, Manipur not to furnish the report as sought by the Government.

What is it that the Kuki chiefs want to hide ?

This is where one is reminded of the eviction drive conducted by the State Government at Sonjang village located inside Churachandpur-Khoupum Protected Forest sometime in February 2023, a few months before Manipur went up in flames.

The eviction drive was staunchly opposed by the Kuki-Zo folks and one can still recall the protest rallies staged at the Kuki dominated areas of Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Moreh thereafter.

This particular eviction drive coupled with the crackdown on poppy plantation were some of the first seeds sown to ignite the fire of May 3, 2023.

And in the past 17 months, The Sangai Express had been arguing why a movement launched against the policies and programmes of the State Government should be turned against a community, as exemplified by what happened on May 3, 2023 evening at Torbung and which quickly spread to Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Moreh.

It was in line with the need to check the influx of immigrants that the Centre has decided to do away with the Free Movement Regime as well as fence the porous Indo-Myanmar border.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Foreign Minister S Jaishanker have also spared no words in asserting that illegal immigration is one of the key factors behind the ongoing ethnic violence.

This much should be clear to everyone and the stand of the Kuki Chiefs’ Association, Manipur to oppose the instruction of the State Government to furnish the details of the villages should be seen and understood in the context of what has been stated here in the opening paragraph.

Earlier the Kukis had openly opposed the NRC call before it somewhat agreed to this proposal as some sort of a challenge to the Government.

This must be kept in mind and one big reason could be due to the fact that Delhi has not shown any inclination to update the NRC here in Manipur.

The BJP in Delhi is more obsessed with Muslim infiltrators than Christian Kukis.

This is the reality at the moment and this is where one is left wondering why the State Government has not bothered to respond to the poser raised here and that is whether it has studied where the evicted people of Sonjang village had headed to.

From where did they come ?

These are points which Imphal should have looked into with the seriousness the issue demands.

The number of refugees at Kamjong side on the Indo-Myanmar border has been updated some time back, but no one seems to know how many from Myanmar have entered Manipur at Churachandpur and Pherzawl side.

Is Imphal receiving any updates from these two districts ?

The people would surely like to know and the question is whether the Government is up to it or not.