Significance of fencing the border : NRC before delimitation call
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 25, 2025 -

Connect the dots and the complete picture should emerge. Even as Delhi has committed itself to the task of fencing the 1643 kilometre long Indo-Myanmar border, strong voice of concern has been raised over the delimitation proposal and with good reasons.

The Co-ordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has already voiced its concern and put the rider that a National Register of Citizens in the State of Manipur should precede the pending delimitation exercise.

The same sentiment has been aired by the All Manipur United Clubs Organisation (AMUCO) as well as the State unit of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Other political parties are also likely to pitch in with their stand in the coming days and the voice of concern should be seen and understood in the backdrop of the rising voice of concern expressed over the ‘unnatural’ growth of the Kuki-Chin-Zo population.

It was not so long back that a writer had given an in-depth write up in The Ukhrul Times, and which was re-produced by The Sangai Express, elaborating on how the number of Naga MLAs has seen a drop while the number of the Kuki-Chin-Zo MLAs has seen a corresponding rise after Manipur attained Statehood in 1972.

It is against this growing concern in the ‘unreasonable’ rise in the number of population of the Kuki-Chin-Zo community that the voice of concern has been raised over the pending delimitation and this is a point that should not be brushed aside.

It is about political representations in the House of 60 and the call for an NRC should also be seen and understood in the context of the decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and the concern expressed over the rapid rise in the population of some.

This is where the Naga community would have to come to terms with the fact that the first casualty due to the constant and gradual influx from across the border has been them.

And this should be kept in mind while thinking of any step to oppose the plan of the Government to fence the Indo-Myanmar border.

That the Nagas have people on either side of the international border is understood and it is also important to keep in mind that the Nagas are not known to have come in and set up settlements here in Manipur.

But the move of Delhi to fence the border and do away with the Free Movement Regime should also be seen and understood as a mechanism to monitor the movement of people from across the border.

The Naga community perhaps needs to be sensitised on this need for it is them who are the first to politically lose out due to the unchecked cross border movement.

It is the unregulated, unfenced border that allowed as many as 20,000 Kukis to enter Manipur during the Burmanisation programme of Ne Win in 1967.

This was only during the Burmanisation programme in 1967 and no one knows how many of the immigrants returned home to the then Burma, now Myanmar, and how many merged with the local population to now become bonafide citizens of India enjoying the benefits given under the Scheduled Tribe category.

Again during the pro-democracy movement of 1988, many did enter Manipur and no one knows how many have left or preferred to stay here to become bonafide citizens.

The figures and the stories told here are from an article written by a Kuki gentleman, Paolienlal Haokip in a publication of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies on May 23, 2002.

This is where it becomes important to look at what the Kuki gentleman had written more than 20 years back to the present reality where the Government of India has started the groundwork of fencing the 1643 kilometre long border and the growing voice of concern over the proposed delimitation exercise.

It will take 10 years to complete the border fencing work is the report that has come in and the question is what steps ought to be taken up in the interregnum.

NRC is one way of identifying and weeding out those who entered Manipur after a certain base year-1951 or 1961- and take legal recourse before the delimitation exercise is actuated.

This is where the two indigenous group of people need to come together, pool in their thoughts and protect their turf. Period.