CorCom boycotts I-Day, imposes shutdown on Aug 15
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, August 12 2023:
As did every year, Coordination Committee (CorCom), the conglomerate of underground groups operating in Manipur, has announced boycott of the 76th Independence Day celebration of India on August 15 and imposed total shutdown on the day.
The total shutdown will be effective from lam till 6.30pm, however, will not cover essential services like medical, electricity, water supply, fire service, media and religious ceremonies, a CorCom statement issued by its publicity committee informed the general public.
According to the CorCom statement, the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur is the direct fallout of the oppressive policy of India after annexation of Manipur in clear violation of international laws.
Since the past few years, the conglomerate group has been reminding people that sacrifices made by the revolutionaries were only for the sake of the motherland (Manipur/Kangleipak).
Manipur/Kangleipak existed as a powerful sovereign nation without any shortages with more than 2000 years of written history except during the seven years of devastation-1819 1826 and as British protectorate from 1891 to 1947.The then Queen Victoria showed utmost regard for the sovereignty of Manipur/Kangleipak as Manipur/Kangleipak was not annexed to the then British India, it said.
The CorCom statement further said that Manipur is the oldest nation in South East Asia to have a written Constitution and entered first international treaty.
The treaty called 'Anglo Manipur Friendship Treaty' was signed on September 14, 1762 between the then king Jai Singh represented by Haridas Gosain and the British Empire through the British East India Company represented by Harry Verelst, chief of Chittagong factory.
The continuity of the sovereign State of Manipur/Kangleipak has been clearly mentioned in DGE Hall's 'A History of South East Asia, 1955' and John F Cady 's South East Asia, 1964', the CorCom said adding that the Treaty of Yandaboo concluded be tween the Burmese and the British on February 24, 1826 recognized the independence of Manipur/Kangleipak with Gambhir Singh as the king.
After the lapse of the British Paramountcy on August 14, 1947, Manipur/Kangleipak regained its sovereignty and became a republic with the functioning of its first Parliament, the 'National Assembly' on October 18, 1948 represented by all sections of the people.
The address of the king Bodhachandra as the Constitutional Head in the Manipur/Kangleipak Parliament noted the area of the nation as 8650 square miles.
The political status of Manipur/Kangleipak declined abruptly with the Indian annexation on October 15,1949 by which sovereign Manipur/Kangleipak was reduced to just a Chief Commissioner's province.
From Part C State in 1950, Manipur/Kangleipak was crafted into a Union Territory in 1956.Not only did the Indian rule promulgate the notorious AFSPA, 1958 and several other draconian laws in the whole of Manipur/Kangleipak, it continued to play a divisive policy amongst several ethnic groups intermittently which now resulted in wanton ethnic clashes, the CorCom said.
The CorCom statement further said that the present ethnic impasse resulted due to India s use of hate games and hate crimes as a part of proxy war' of the counter-insurgency operation.
It said that all the struggling and oppressed indigenous people of Manipur/Kangleipak should now realize the Indian policy of killing two birds with one stone and the impossibility of restoration of the lost sovereignty of Manipur within the framework of the Constitution of India under the guise of any peace-talk.
A big question arises now on the failure to contain the three months' old crisis on the part of India despite being largest democracy and the 4th military power in the world.
The people of Manipur/Kangleipak should nbw understand that the huge deployment of Indian forces is not the solution to the present crisis but a ploy for Indian military built-up in this fragile region, the CorCom alleged.
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