New Delhi: Manipur is now “divided” through “population transfer”, 10 Kuki legislators have informed Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing the N Biren Singh-led BJP government and the police of being “communalised” and behind the “massacre”. is accused of.
kuki tribesmen
The MLAs, including eight BJP MLAs, have also accused CM Biren Singh of “patronising” the radical stormtroopers and now “cannot imagine resettling in the Imphal Valley” where “their lives are no longer safe”.
The group of legislators, which also included Leptao Haokip, the lone Kuki minister in the Biren Singh government, told Shah that the only logical way forward was to set up a separate administration for the Kuki-populated hills, ThePrint has learnt.
The legislators submitted a three-page memorandum to Shah, in which they have said that the recent institutional ethnic cleansing and atrocities against the ethnic Kuki-Chin-Mizo-Zomi-Hamar minority community by the majority Meitei community has shocked everyone Is.
According to a source, Shah on Monday met the Manipur Chief Minister and his four cabinet colleagues, besides BJP state president A.K. Sharda Devi and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjaoba Lishemba Sanjaoba, the king of Manipur, met Kuki leaders after the meeting on Sunday. To discuss the situation following the ethnic clashes between the Kukis and the Meitei people.
The Kuki legislators requested the Home Minister to “seriously consider” a suitable mechanism for administrative separation of the two communities.
Although tensions between tribals and non-tribals have been simmering for some time, violence broke out on May 3 following a solidarity march called by the All-Tribal Students’ Union Manipur to protest the demand for non-Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. flared up Tribal Meitei community. As of now, tribal groups including Chin, Kuki, Zomi, Mizo, Hamar and Naga have ST status in Manipur.
While the death toll has crossed 60, Manipur remains under curfew, though authorities are giving relaxations in some districts. The state government has extended the ban on internet services till May 20.
The Home Minister wanted to apprise himself of the ground situation. He asked both the parties – the CM and his four cabinet colleagues and the Kuki MLAs – to work together to restore peace and normalcy in the state.
In the memorandum, the MLAs have written that now it is a ground reality that Manipur has been divided. “There was massive population transfer between the valley and the hills inhabited by the Kuki-Chin-Mizo-Zomi-Hamar. There are no tribals left in the Imphal Valley. There is no soil left in the hills. The memorandum stated that the Manipur government and its police machinery had been communalised and used in pogroms against the Kuki tribals.
Read also: Meitei and Kuki clashes reveal deep community divide in Manipur’s bureaucracy: ‘Never seen before’
‘clear cut partition’
The legislators further highlighted how Kuki colonies and houses in Imphal city were identified and precisely attacked. “The survey and mapping was done a few years ago by the radical Meitei storms, which have now been revealed as Aramabai Tenggol and Meitei Lepun. The memorandum alleged that there is photo-evidence of such regiments being patronized by Chief Minister N Biren Singh and the Meitei Maharaja and Member of Parliament Lishemba Sanajaoba.
The Kuki legislators said that the mob violence was pre-planned. “All Kuki Police Officers from DG/Additional DGP/Joint DG to Constable were stripped of all powers, disarmed and made inactive much before May 3, while Meitei Police was also left to the Kuki residents of the city Gaya 3 May and onwards as foothill villages. As a result of the response in the hill areas, all Meitei police personnel have left their posts in all hill stations,” the legislators wrote.
The Kukis, who are influential in the hilly areas, were also protesting the government’s move since February to evict encroachers cultivating opium in the reserve forest. The state government’s action was seen by tribal Kuki-Zomi groups as targeted against them.
The Kuki legislators also said that there is a “clear divide” between the tribal/Kuki hills and the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley. “Our people have lost faith in the Manipur government and can no longer imagine resettling in the Valley where their lives are no longer safe. Meiteis hate us and do not respect us,” the memorandum said.
He said that in the present circumstances, there is now a need to formalize the separation through establishment of a separate administration for the hills. “We can’t be together anymore. The only logical way forward is to remain separate and with time perhaps come back in peace and on equal terms with mutual respect and respect for each other,” he said.
The same group of legislators, which also includes two members of the Kuki People’s Alliance, an ally of the BJP, also issued a press statement last Friday calling on the central government to “have a separate administration under the Constitution of India and live in peace with neighbours”. was demanded. Manipur State”.
(Edited by Tony Rae)
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