KNO questions UPF and 'IM' on floating TPOM
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Newmai News Network

Imphal, June 23 2013: The Kuki National National Organisation (KNO), one of the two umbrella organisations of Kuki militant groups has expressed its critical view on the reported floating of Tribal People's Organisation of Manipur (TPOM) and also questions the stands of the other Kuki umbrella body of Kuki militant groups, United Peoples Front (UPF) and the NSCN-IM .

Making its view public in a statement made available to Newmai News Network, the KNO said, "Recent days witnessed the floating of a Tribal People's Organization of Manipur, (TPOM) backed by the UPF, one of the Kuki armed insurgent groupings who are signatories of the SoO with the center and state government of Manipur.

The UPF had yesterday sent an invite to the KNO to participate in the deliberations scheduled to be held today, the 22nd June at YPA hall, New Lamka.

The KNO regretted that such an invite should come at such short notice, and the fact that it could not, for want of consultation within its fold attend the said meeting" .

Nevertheless, the KNO would like to make the following statements in so far as tribal peoples' political roadmap in Manipur is concerned, it added.

Accoprding to the KNO, all constitutional provisions for protection of tribal rights in the so-called state of Manipur have been meticulously followed in violation by the state government of Manipur since 1972 .

This is the irreparable majoritarian course the Meitei dominated state had chosen to ignite the kind of dissonance in the polity, the KNO alleged.

"Secondly, of the two tribal political alignments in the state, the Naga tribals had allowed themselves to be led in the exclusivist path defined by the NSCN (IM) and had never responded to overtures from Kuki tribals for a co-ordinated response to the colonial and anti-tribal tendencies of the state of Manipur.

The NSCN (IM) and the UNC, the two political fronts representing Naga political aspirations continue to be exclusivist," the Kuki National Organisation alleged.

It then said the KNO had proffered a politically pragmatic 'terms of engagement' to the Naga brothers, despite the NSCN (IM) sponsored 'Kuki genocide', for tribal co-ordination and cooperation, wherein all disputable issues between the two tribal polities would first be settled to create opportunities for political cooperation.

In response, the NSCN (IM) had chosen to issue a press statement, denying having entered into such an agreement, nay a proposed Memorandum of Agreement.

How can one deny being a signatory to a'proposed draft terms of cooperation' remains a myth to the KNO till today, the Kuki body said.

"Now, Tribal Peoples' organization, Manipur, (TPOM) had proposed political arrangements within the so-called state of Manipur which presumes political unity between the two tribal groups, Naga and Kuki.

The KNO begs to seek if the exclusivist NSCN (IM) is in accord with this proposal.

Further, the KNO would like to pose this vital political question as to whether the NSCM (IM) propagated, exclusivist and non-compromising, Naga political stance on territorial rights of Nagas in relation to Kukis has been taken cognizance of by the TPOM and Separate Hill Tribal Area Administration Demand Committee (SHTAADC) in putting forth such a mess of a political demand," the KNO stated.

The KNO once again appeals to the UPF leadership to confer within to deliberate on Kuki political rights and aspirations without taking resort to political one-upmanship through engaging 'on-sale' Naga individuals to project a united tribal cause with the petty objective of ostensibly outscoring the KNO on the broadness of aspired political settlements.

The KNO then said it continues to stand by its offer of political settlement of territorial disputes between Kuki and Naga peoples as a pre condition for political coordination and cooperation, and persists in its appeal to the Naga people to take cognizance of the mutually destructive path the NSCN (IM) have led them into in so far as securing our common tribal rights are concerned.

The KNO 'humbly' advises the UPF and the individual Naga personalities engaged in projecting a sham of a political front in TPOM or SHTAADC to desist from petty politicking and begin addressing real concerns of the Kuki and Naga Tribals, whose rights have been trampled by majoritarian autocratism.

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