Four NPF Manipur Unit MLAs submit resignation
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, September 05 2015 : Four Naga People's Front (NPF) Members of the Manipur Legislative Assembly (MLAs) have tendered resignation from the membership of the Assembly with effect from the September 4.The MLAs are L Dikho (48- Mao A/C); Samuel Risom (44-Ukhrul A/C); ST Victor Nunghlung (41-Chandel A/C) and Dr V Alexander Pao (47-Karong A/C) .

In a joint resignation letter forwarded to the Assembly Speaker, the four MLAs said they have tendered resignation "as a supreme sacrifice for the protection of the short and long term interests of all the tribal people including Nagas inhabiting the hill districts of Manipur" .

The MLAs asserted that the resignation from the Assembly is a "serious and severe protest against the consistent, cruel, crude and unpardonable anti-tribal and anti-Naga attitude, approach and actions of the Ibobi Singh Government as evident from its recent legislative measures such as the Protection of Manipur People Bill, 2015, the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (7th Amendment) Bill, 2015, the Manipur Shops and Establishments (2nd Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Resolution on the Indo-Naga Peace Accord" .

Four NPF Manipur Unit MLAs submit resignation

They also alleged that the height of "anti-tribal, anti-Naga and undemocratic posture of the Ibobi Government" is its persistent denial to constitute and notify the two Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) in Chandel and Tamenglong despite a clear majority obtained by the NPF.

The MLAs also alleged that the Speaker of the Assembly "had not only bull dozed our genuine aspirations" for debate on the Bill recently passed and the voice for the tribal communities and Nagas of the Hill Districts were not registered on the records of the Assembly.

The NPF legislators said the resignation was aimed at condemnation of the Protection of Manipur People Bill, 2015 which "treats Nagas and other tribes from Nagaland and other States in the Region as non-Manipuris and compelling them to have ILPs to enter Manipur thereby making them foreigners in their own land."Such legislation is squarely contrary to the very spirit of the agenda on the table of the "Indo-Naga Peace talks", of which the strident aspiration is to bring all Nagas in the contiguous areas under one umbrella, said the MLAs.

Calling the steps taken by the Government as not only "anti-Naga but anti-National", the MLAs alleged the Ibobi led Government was attempting to drastically alter "the customary land holding system in the Hill Districts through the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (7th Amendment) Bill, 2015 .

The NPF MLAs also alleged that The Manipur Shops and Establishments (2nd Amendment) Bill, 2015 is also "an assault on the traditional rights of the tribals and Nagas of the Hill Districts of Manipur" .

Pointing out that the Constitutional mandate of consulting the Hill Areas Committee constituted under article 371C of the Constitution of India on all these measures was casually given a go by, the four NPF MLAs alleged that Ibobi Government is in "urgency to colonize Hill Areas and to strangulate the voice of the people and their representatives of the Hill Districts" .

The MLAs have called upon the Governor of the State, the President of India, the NDA Government at the Centre, the Interlocutor for the Indo-Naga Peace Talks, the people, the churches, the leaders and the workers of all political parties to unite, consolidate and act in tandem so that the injustices committed by the Ibobi Government through the aforesaid legislative measures and resolution on the people of the Hill Districts are halted and reversed.