Shocked by blatant lies, fabricated statements of Kukis: UNC
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, August 21 2023:
The United Naga Council has expressed shock over "blatant lies, lop sided history and fabricated information" in every statement issued and memorandum submitted by Kuki-Zo community, which it said is distortion of Naga history and in sult to Naga people.
In a statement, UNC said that Nagas have better sense of hardships, distresses borne by the Ku-ki-Zo people as the consequences of the present ethnic conflict but it has become inevitable for Nagas to register its opposition to the issues raised and incorporated in their (Kuki) memorandum submitted to different authorities as it is posing a big threat to the very existence and inalienable rights of Na-gas, particularly in the state of Manipur.
UNC has been putting all possible efforts to end the ongoing ethnic conflict between the warring communities through dialogue but unfortunately things are not turning positive as expected.
The Nagas are also taken aback by the blatant lies, lop-sided history and fabricated information contained in every statement and memorandum issued by the Kuki-Zo community which tantamount to dis tortion of Naga history and insult to the Naga people, it stated.
The statement said that Nagas' opposition to the creation of new districts in 2016 remains alive as unfinished issue.
The districts carved out from Senapati and Chandel districts are the handiworks of the Congress government's appeasement policy carried out in the name of administrative convenience.
Hence the demand of separate administration which incorporates the so-called two new districts is necessarily opposed.
The bifurcation of the so-called two districts is an issue virtually with the Kukis only but not with Zo people.
In this regard the Kuki-Zo people's representation to the Union Government, Israeli s Prime Minister, European Parliament and UNO is on false territorial foundation and an attempt to befool those authorities, the statement said.
Asserting that in the context of Manipur, the name Kukis were first heard some-time between 1830-1840 and therefore, "Kuki hills' that appear in the fourth para of the mentioned memo to the Prime Minister of Israel is non-existence and utopian concoction, it added.
The statement called the establishment of new villages in Kuki areas within Naga districts as for their displaced people of 1990s conflict while hiding the fact of illegal immigrants as an act of befooling themselves.
Historically, the advent of British in Manipur brought about many unwanted changes.
One of the many problems inherited from the British colonial rule is the issue of planting Kuki tribe in Na-ga hills.
As a mercenary tribe the British found the Kukis quite useful.
Their total lack of attachment to any land and landscape was immediately recognised by the British thus making them instrumental to crushing the indigenous communities of Manipur, it stated.
UNC further pointed out that the recent blatant attempt of Kukis at distorting history of Kuki rebellion of 1917-1919 as Anglo-Kuki War to legitimise their imagined Kuki homeland within Naga ancestral homeland is one of the classic examples of their habitual lies.
The statement said that Kuki Rebellion 1917-1919 was a savage episode of murdering, torching houses, plundering and enslaving women and children of indigenous Naga community in Ukhrul, Chandel and Tamenglong districts in Manipur.
It was never a war but a mere rebellion with the colonial power as there is no record of Anglo-Kuki War in the history of India as per MHA record.
Maintaining that Manipur is now flooded with il-legal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, the UNC statement said that in all the districts, there has been increasing and Expansion of villages, and creation of new villages rampantly at the rapid pace.
Columns of illegal camps are being built in alarming rate near the town of Moreh and its surrounding areas to facilitate the settlement of those intruding Kukis from Myanmar.
If the flow of illegal immigrants is not stopped by the Government of India and the Government of Manipur, the day will not be long when the Indigenous population will be reduced to a minority, it stated.
The demand for creation of the post of Chief Secretary and Director General of Police or equivalents, as well as other posts in the memorandum dated August 16 submitted to the Prime Minister of India by the 10 MLAs of Kuki-Zo community, is nothing but a mere different tune sung out of the same lyrics, which is the demand for separate administration.
In this regard too, the Nagas are not with the Kukis.
Moreover, it is completely uncanny and unfortunate on the part of the Kuki-Zo people to have clubbed Chandel district along with the so called Tengnoupal district together with Churachandpur district as their land.
The areas remain without time, the stone megaliths and menhirs found in different parts of Churachandpur speak of the precedence of Nagas (especially the Zeliangrongs) over the present inhabitants and the Anals and Lamkangs in Pherzawl areas.
Prior to the submission of the memorandum, nine names of Naga tribes of Chandel district are incorporated in Kuki Constitution as Kuki tribes, it stated and demanded the Kukis to show the basis of the inclusion.
Nagas will not remain mute over the issue.
Nagas believe that nothing in this regard is too late to set the wrong to right, the UNC statement added.
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