Assam's claim over Manipur's freedom fighters unfortunate: NPP
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, November 20 2023:
Expressing that it is extremely unfortunate to find the portraits of four freedom fighters of Manipur being put up at Gandhi Mandap Museum atop Saraniya hill, Ulubari, Assam with the claim that they were the freedom fighters of the then undivided Assam; National People's Party (NPP) national vice president Yumnam Joykumar has urged the Manipur Government to write to the central government and also to the Assam government at the earliest to remove and rectify the same.
In a press meet held at NPP's Naoremthong office on Monday afternoon, Joykumar referred to the news article published in The People's Chronicle on November 19, that identified freedom fighters of Manipur, namely Bir Tikendrajit, Paona Brajabashi, Haipou Jadonang and Rani Gaidinliu as freedom fighters of undivided Assam.
This not only shows the lack of knowledge of history and about the existence of the once independent Manipur kingdom even after 70 years of being merged to India, but could be considered as an attempt to distort history, he opined.
Questioning who is responsible for putting up the display boards depicting the false information, Joykumar urged the Manipur government to write to the central and Assam governments to rectify this matter immediately, even if it is not known under which government the act was done.
While there is no issue in depicting the freedom fighters as that of Manipur or as one of the northeast states, the present display will lead the young generations to believe that Manipur was part of Assam, which is not true, he reasoned and urged the CM to look into the matter as soon as possible.