This is what I term as hilarious, decuctive interpretation by the media. May be I'm right, may be not. Heaven only knows. God bless my people !
New Delhi, Dated 2nd
September, 2015
To,
The Hon’ble Prime Minister,
Government of India
Subject: Request for immediate intervention on the atrocities perpetrated on the tribal people in Manipur.
Hon’ble Sir,
The Manipur Tribals Forum, Delhi like to bring the following facts for your kind perusal and necessary action.
1. That, on 31 August, 2015, the Manipur Assembly passed three bills following sustained protests in the Manipur valley districts demanding the implementation of Inner Line Permit (ILP) system for the State. The three bills, taken together, will directly undermine the existing safeguards for the tribal ‘hill areas’ regarding land-ownership and population influx as the primary threat for the tribal people comes not from outside the state but the valley Meitei people itself. The tribal people have made their opposition to the Meitei demands clear. But, the tribal people were never consulted by the ‘Joint Committee’ which have been spearheading the demands, nor the Manipur Government which accepts them. The tribal MLAs in the Assembly, fearing for their lives, dare not oppose the Bills when the Bills were introduced and passed in the Assembly.
2. That, the Hill Areas Committee (HAC), comprising of all tribal MLAs, which was set up under Article 371C of the Constitution to protect tribal interests and whose concurrence is mandatory for all legislation affecting tribal areas, was summarily brushed aside.
3. That, this instance has sparked off a strong opposition from all the tribal people of Manipur across the state. It flared up emotion into violent reaction against their representative tribal MLAs. The state government, instead of explaining the contents of the amendment and pacifying the agitators used its naked forces to suppress the tribals causing widespread atrocities, untold miseries, and uncontrolled human rights violation across the hills.
4. That, the brutal reaction of the state forces against the peaceful mass agitation has caused the loss of precious lives of eight people and several number of the agitators were left with serious injury. In a clear case of daylight repression the state forces used real bullets to disperse the protesters. Your Honour might have seen various reports in the national media and social media networks testifying to the brutality of the state forces in dealing with the situation.
5. That, the incident of passing the Bill and its brutal suppression of the tribal agitators, State Government has shown its real intention to grab the lands of the tribal people which has been so far protected by the Constitution of India. It also shows a clear case of the present Ibobi government’s incompetency to govern the state.
We, the Manipur Tribals Forum, Delhi, therefore demand from the Government of India:
i). To immediately impose President’s Rule in Manipur
ii). To punish those state security forces involved in the brutal killing of the agitators.
iii). To immediately withdraw the Manipur Police commandos from all tribal areas and if need be, deploy central forces.
iv). Restoration of all villages transferred to valley district to their original hill districts.
v). To expeditiously act on the demands for ‘separate administration’ for the tribal areas of Manipur. This is a proof, if any more are needed, that the hill tribals and the plain Meiteis cannot live together under one administration.
Yours Sincerely,
On behalf of the Manipur Tribals Forum, Delhi
To,
The Hon’ble Prime Minister,
Government of India
Subject: Request for immediate intervention on the atrocities perpetrated on the tribal people in Manipur.
Hon’ble Sir,
The Manipur Tribals Forum, Delhi like to bring the following facts for your kind perusal and necessary action.
1. That, on 31 August, 2015, the Manipur Assembly passed three bills following sustained protests in the Manipur valley districts demanding the implementation of Inner Line Permit (ILP) system for the State. The three bills, taken together, will directly undermine the existing safeguards for the tribal ‘hill areas’ regarding land-ownership and population influx as the primary threat for the tribal people comes not from outside the state but the valley Meitei people itself. The tribal people have made their opposition to the Meitei demands clear. But, the tribal people were never consulted by the ‘Joint Committee’ which have been spearheading the demands, nor the Manipur Government which accepts them. The tribal MLAs in the Assembly, fearing for their lives, dare not oppose the Bills when the Bills were introduced and passed in the Assembly.
2. That, the Hill Areas Committee (HAC), comprising of all tribal MLAs, which was set up under Article 371C of the Constitution to protect tribal interests and whose concurrence is mandatory for all legislation affecting tribal areas, was summarily brushed aside.
3. That, this instance has sparked off a strong opposition from all the tribal people of Manipur across the state. It flared up emotion into violent reaction against their representative tribal MLAs. The state government, instead of explaining the contents of the amendment and pacifying the agitators used its naked forces to suppress the tribals causing widespread atrocities, untold miseries, and uncontrolled human rights violation across the hills.
4. That, the brutal reaction of the state forces against the peaceful mass agitation has caused the loss of precious lives of eight people and several number of the agitators were left with serious injury. In a clear case of daylight repression the state forces used real bullets to disperse the protesters. Your Honour might have seen various reports in the national media and social media networks testifying to the brutality of the state forces in dealing with the situation.
5. That, the incident of passing the Bill and its brutal suppression of the tribal agitators, State Government has shown its real intention to grab the lands of the tribal people which has been so far protected by the Constitution of India. It also shows a clear case of the present Ibobi government’s incompetency to govern the state.
We, the Manipur Tribals Forum, Delhi, therefore demand from the Government of India:
i). To immediately impose President’s Rule in Manipur
ii). To punish those state security forces involved in the brutal killing of the agitators.
iii). To immediately withdraw the Manipur Police commandos from all tribal areas and if need be, deploy central forces.
iv). Restoration of all villages transferred to valley district to their original hill districts.
v). To expeditiously act on the demands for ‘separate administration’ for the tribal areas of Manipur. This is a proof, if any more are needed, that the hill tribals and the plain Meiteis cannot live together under one administration.
Yours Sincerely,
On behalf of the Manipur Tribals Forum, Delhi
The Hindu Editorial dated 3.9.2015 stated:-
The crisis in Manipur stems from the demand to stop
‘outsiders’ from buying land in the State, in a context where the local
population, predominantly the Meiteis, harbours fears of being marginalised.
The valley constitutes only 10 per cent of the State’s geographical area and
Meiteis constitute about 50 per cent of the population there. The long-standing
demand has been to introduce a system similar to the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in other
northeastern States, or some similar stipulation, to stop in-migration. But for
this to be effective, the State needs to identify the ‘outsiders’ first. But
that is a complex issue anywhere in the northeastern region as the borders are
largely porous and the Government of India has not done enough to check the
passage of people across them. One reason this was not done was to protect the
state’s own interest: for a long time now, a section of the immigrants have
been engaged to counter local insurgent groups. But as the demand for an ILP escalated, a cut-off year of 1951 was
determined in the new Bills passed on Monday in order to identify outsiders.
However, one of them, the Protection of Manipur People’s Bill, and two
amendments, have been opposed by the tribal organisations, which claim control
of the Manipur Hill districts. These are chiefly groups of Kukis, Mizos and
Chins. They feel insecure as many of them who came to Manipur after 1951 or
whose lineage may not meet the list of criteria set out in the Bills, could now
be legally identified as ‘outsiders.’ Many of them also believe a rumour that
the two amendments would be valid in the Manipur Hills districts, which is
untrue.
The issues
might not have escalated had the State government consulted the Hill Areas
Committee before passing the Bills in order to clear any misunderstanding.
Neither the organisation that had led the pro-ILP movement nor any of the
tribal organisations was approached for any kind of dialogue. The pro-ILP
movement was mostly confined to the Valley districts, while the people in the
Hills isolated themselves, assuming and arguing that they were protected from
outsiders under existing laws. As the tensions grew in the absence of
dialogue, political groups added fuel to the fire to try and topple the
Congress-led government and invite President’s Rule. Hence, it is not
any genuine fear of becoming marginalised but realpolitik that is playing out
in the hills of Manipur. But from any perspective, this is a dangerous portent
for all the northeastern States. The Centre and the State need to come forward
quickly to engage the people and figure out a solution to the crisis in order
that it won’t go out of control.
