Social activists write to PM warning serious consequences to creation of Naga Territorial Council
Source: IT News
Imphal, June 18 2018:
Three social activists of the state � Heigrujam Nabashyam, Hijam Rajendra Singh and Leichombam Dilip Singh has submitted a memorandum to the prime Minister of India showing serious concern to the possibility of creating a Naga Territorial Council or a similar of the Kind in the state of Manipur while resolving the issue to the NSCN-IM.
In the memorandum the three social activist while appreciating the Government of India initiatives to end the Naga Insurgency strongly oppose any destruction in any form to the state of Manipur The memorandum stated that Manipur was an ancient South East Asian nation with over 2000 years of written history .
It was also the last territory to be annexed by the British Colonialists in the Indian Sub-Continent following the Anglo-Manipur War in 1891 and therefore Manipur cannot be compared with Arunachal Pradesh or any o ther states in the region.
Geographically speaking it is a state made up of the hills that covers 90% of the state and the remaining 10% is the valley .
The beautiful part of the state is that there are 37 different indigenous groups of people who reside in the state.
While the valley dwellers namely the Meitei who speaks Meiteilon, also known as Manipuri as their mother tongue were the traditional settlers of the valley .
But today all the 37 different indigenous groups of people without any distinction share the same space of the valley .
And yet the reverse is not true as no Meiteilon speaking people can settle in the hill areas of Manipur which is practically reserved for those groups of people enlisted in the list of scheduled tribe of the Indian Constitution.
"Now any move to appease the NSCN (I-M) by creating a Naga Territorial Council or the like will be met with fierce opposition from the other sections of the people of Manipur Rajiv Gandhi was able to carve out the State of Mizoram in 1986 because there were no opposition from any quarter but around the same time his idea of gifting Chandigarh to Pubjab had failed because of opposition from other quarters", the memorandum stated .
It further says, any move to appease the NSCN(I-M) along communal fault lines will be strictly opposed to and see the birth of an ethnic w ar or a civil war as there may be many others who do not believe in a negotiated settlement to the problems th us caused.
It may also be borne in mind that in June 2001 the state went up in flames when the then Government of India had added the term "without territorial limits" to the ceasefire agreement between the Government India and the NSCN(I-M).
The Government of India had to drop the questionable addition to the ceasefire agreement later on.
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