All four NPF legislators tender resignation?
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 05 2015 : Four NPF MLAs namely L Dikho (Mao A/C), Samuel Risom (Ukhrul A/C), ST Victor Nunghlung (Chandel A/C) and Dr V Alexander Pao (Karong A/C) have tendered their resignation from the membership of Manipur Legislative Assembly with effect from September 4 .

According to a joint statement issued to media by the four MLAs, their resignation 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 (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2015, the Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Resolution on the Indo-Naga Peace Accord.

Whereas Assembly Liaison Officer (Press) RK Bhagat said that neither any communication nor any resignation letter was received by the Manipur Legislative Assembly Speaker from the four MLAs till 9 pm today, NPF Manipur president Awang-bow Newmai maintained that a resignation letter was submitted to the Speaker at 7 pm today .

NPF MLAs Dr V Alexander, Victor Nunghlung, Samuel Risom and L Dikho (From left to right)

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 in Chandel and Tameng- long despite a clear majority obtained by the Naga People's Front in these two districts.

Maintaining that they vehemently opposed the new legislative measures in the House and sought time from the Speaker for detailed participation in the debate on the Bills and the Resolution, the four MLAs said that the Speaker had not only bull dozed the genuine aspirations for debate on the Bill so that voice of the tribals and Nagas of the Hill Districts was not registered on the records of the Assembly.

"The Speaker followed a steam rolling procedure of not allowing sufficient time for us to express our views and to table amendments as otherwise these Bills and resolution would have been mode- rated after Parliamentary persuasion.

We were also not allowed to stage a walk out from the House at the time of passing of these measures as the Speaker jumped procedure to declare that these measures were passed without due deliberations and without allowing us time to register our final protest of walk out", they asserted.

The resignations are aimed at condemnation of the Protection of Manipur People Bill, 2015 which treats Nagas and other tribes from Naga-land 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 a 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.

This legislation is nothing but a ruse to derail the Indo-Naga peace talks and thus not only anti-naga but anti-national in as much as it aims at throwing a spanner in the peace talks.

The MLR&LR Act 1960 (Seventh Amendment) Bill seeks to insert sections 14A and 14B so as to empower Deputy Commissioners and the State Cabinet to divest tribals and Nagas of their lands by nullifying the customary laws of the hill people.

The Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015 is also an assault on the traditional rights of the tribals and Nagas of the Hill Districts of Manipur.

All the three Bills which are of crucial significance to the customary and cultural lives of the tribals and Nagas of the Hill Districts of Manipur were passed in one single day, without debate, without permission to move amendments, and without following the legislative procedure enshrined in the Constitution of India and the Rules of Procedure of the House.

The MLAs from the Hill Districts especially the NPF MLAs' clarion call for democratic procedure went unheeded both by the Speaker and by the Ibobi Government.

Though the NPF MLAs opposed the Resolution which questioned the agenda of the Indo-Naga Peace Talks, the Resolution was so worded that it sought to dismember the items of the agenda like "integration of contiguous Naga areas" from the ongoing Peace Talks.

By introducing such words like "administration of the State of Manipur" in the Resolution, the Ibobi Government had directly interfered with the alternative solutions being explored by the Government of India for integrating Nagas of the Region.

By urging the Government of India to amend Article 3 of the Constitution of India to make the views of the State Legislature concerned mandatory for altering the boundaries of a State, the Ibobi Government has jumped the gun even before a solution is found to the protracted political problem of the Nagas, reads the resignation letter.