ASUK calls total shutdown on Oct 15
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 12 2024:
Stating that October 15 is the day Kangleipak/Manipur was merged into the Indian Union through force and coercion leading to a slow death of all its people, the Alliance for Socialist Unity, Kangleipak (ASUK) has called a total shutdown in the State on October 15 .
According to a statement issued by ASUK publicity committee convenor S Mangal, the people of Kangleipak/Manipur have been enduring all kinds of repression, oppressive measures and leading a life of humiliation and indignity since the day the State was forcibly merged into the Indian Union.
"We have been dehumanised", it said.
After the lapse of British paramountcy, Manipur was ruled by a representative Government under the Manipur Constitution Act 1948 with the king serving as nominal head of the State.
Kangleipak was an ancient civilization like the Chinese civilization and the Indus Valley civilization as described by Oja Naoria Sanajaoba, but it was reduced to the lowly status of Part-C State after its merger with the Indian Union.
It was an unforgettable humiliation for the people of Mani- pur/Kangleipak, ASUK said.
In 1957, Manipur was made a Union Territory with no legislature.
It was elevated to the status of a Union Territory with legislature in 1963.After a long and hard struggle, Manipur was granted full statehood on February 21, 1972, it recalled.
In the name of fighting Naga insurgency, AFSPA was enforced in the hill areas in 1958 and the dra- conian Act was extended all over Manipur including the valley in 1980.This led to extensive oppression of the people, it said.
The Indian armed forces saw the people of Manipur as sub-humans.
Many women were raped, innocent people were imprisoned for years, a large number of people were killed and many others disappeared involuntarily, it continued.
Iron Lady Irom Sharmila fasted for 16 long years demanding repeal of AFSPA but the Government of India paid no heed total shutdown on Oct 15 even though it was the longest hunger strike in the world.
The longest period MK Gandhi fasted in the course of his freedom struggle was 21 days.
Whereas the British rulers respected Gan- dhi's hunger strike, India derided Sharmila's struggle.
It took long and hard struggles for the Manipuri language to be included in the 8th Schedule and extension of ILP system to Mani- pur even though these rights are entitled to the people of Manipur.
ASUK alleged that the ongoing Kuki aggression is another covert strategy of the alien rule to annihilate the people of Manipur by inciting the communities to kill each other.
India might be harbouring a notion that nobody will raise any objection to extraction of petroleum from Manipur and Mizoram after the communities are weakened by communal killings, it said.
Considering China's growing influence in Myanmar, India might be seeing Manipur as a strategic frontier.
As such, India might have an intention to uproot all communities from Manipur who are not loyal to India, it alleged.
India might be thinking that the easiest means to realise this objective is to incite communal conflicts and killings.
It further alleged that India has been using Manipur as a sacrificial lamb in order to protect itself.
The people of Kang-leipak/Manipur must understand these perspective and attitude of India, and prepare accordingly, it said.
It added that medical and emergency services as well as religious functions will be exempted from the purview of the total shutdown.
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