Setting pre-conditions for Delhi talk : Need to play the card right
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 05, 2025 -

The obvious but unstated would not have blown over the consciousness of Delhi.

Even as representatives of the All Manipur United Clubs’ Organisation (AMUCO) and Federation of Civil Society Organisations (FOCS) have proceeded to Delhi for the anticipated talks with Kuki-Zo CSOs under the initiative of the Union Home Ministry, the Meitei side has not set down any pre-conditions unlike the Kuki-Zo CSOs.

In fact the scheduled April 5 talk at Delhi registered in the consciousness of the public at Imphal only after the Kuki-CSOs spelt out the pre-conditions for cessation of hostilities on April 1 and this is something which could and should not have missed the attention of the Home Ministry.

This point should be understood in the backdrop of the fact that one side in the talk has not hesitated in laying down pre-conditions for the talk to fructify or even take its first step.

Laying down pre-conditions from a position of strength or is it something else, is then the natural question that follows.

Apart from this it is also more than clear that the Kuki-Zo side has already rolled up its sleeves ahead of the scheduled meeting and this is where perhaps Manipur or those representing the interest of the State, ought to have outlined the points that ought to be laid down during the talk.

First obviously should be the call to stop all cross border incursion, a point which has been made more than clear by all neutral observers, starting from the Nagas and other political parties, notably the Congress, if one goes by what one of its leaders, Shashi Tharoor had to say on the floor of the Lok Sabha on April 3 is anything to go by.

Manipur facing severe challenges from illegal immigrants is the one line statement delivered by the MP from Thiruvanan-thapuram and this is a point which the Centre had already acknowledged in its decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border as well as do away with the Free Movement Regime.

It is from this strength that the representatives of AMUCO and FOCS should put the points of Manipur across during the scheduled meeting at Delhi on April 5.

A look back at the recent and not so recent past and one can also recall the line maintained by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar when they pointed fingers at the rampant incursion from across the border as one of the primary reasons for the ongoing clash.

The records are there and it is from these records that the representatives of AMUCO and FOCS should draw their strength from and put forward suggestions that will stengthen the case of Manipur during the talk.

And when one talks about the incursion from across the border, it would be prudent to remind Delhi that a prominent group of the SoO pact is headed by a personality who is or was a Myanmar citizen.

These are points which should be put across without hesitation and with conviction.

For the record it would also help the case of Manipur if the representatives from the two CSOs care to refer to a write up submitted by a Kuki gentleman by the name of Paolienlal Haokip in a publication of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies under the heading Suffering in Oblivion: Burmese refugees in the North East Region of India.

This was back on May 23, 2002 and in the said article Mr Haokip detailed how in 1967 a large number of Kukis were driven out of Myanmar during the Burmanization programme of Ne Win in 1967.

In the Burmanization programme launched under Operation Khadawmi at least 20,000 Kukis made their way into Manipur while others also entered the Indian States of Nagaland and Mizoram.

Then again in 1988 a large number of immigrants entered Manipur and the other North Eastern States during the democratic uprising.

This is what was written by a Kuki gentleman and the interesting part is no one knows how many of the more than 20,000 Kukis who entered Manipur returned to Myanmar or merged with the local population and were later included in the ST list of the Constitution of India.

Many others too have crossed into Manipur after the military coup in 2021 constraining MLA from Phungyar Assembly Constituency Leishiyo Keishing to inform the State Assembly that the refugees from across the border have started to outnumber the local population.

These are facts and it is on the basis of these facts that the call to update the NRC must be presented before the Union Home Ministry during the talk on April 5.

The stand of Manipur should be spelt out clearly.