Mobilenews24x7 Bureau
The ongoing ethnic inferno in Manipur has raised a few questions that requires to be answered by the political dispensations who ruled India for last 76 years.
As the celebrations went on there in a strategic location of the country there could not be any, even, band-aid solution for the bleeding state Manipur where the Kukis are stated to be having septic wounds.
Instead going into the present reasons behind the turmoil, lets delve into the history that says the Kukis played a glorious role during the freedom struggle by whole-heatedly joining the Netaji Subas Chandra Bose led Indian National Army(INA).
History has it in record that, Kuki tribals of Indo-Burmese frontier played a significant role in 1940.
An article in The Wire written by Samantra Bose said how Netaji had even gone to the Kuki town of Churachandpur. Later, many Kukis were given a pension by the Indian government for their involvement in the INA.
What went wrong that today the same tribe has been let down to a state where they still keep licking the wounds with no panacea in sight.
Adding to that, the findings by the Indian Council of Historical Research, reveal that “out of 112 Indian freedom fighters from Manipur, more than 80 were Kukis”. Albeit, like the Kukis, the Meiteis also helped the INA, as outlined in Bose’s article.
It is the same people who today have to be in the middle of an inferno and are suffering an ignominy as traitors and several indecorous labels.
History has this in record that, the Kuki raised the banner against the British later named as the Kuki uprising which rattled the then rulers. And the latter was left panting for recourse of deploying fighter planes to suppress the Kuki up rise.
It is not known of the annals in Mnaipur have a mention of that revolt in which the Meitie did not play any role.
It is shocking that, a community that stood behind INA and faced the onslaughts from the British forces are today considered as alien. Why so?
It needs no mention that, there is a Free Movement Regime for 16 kilometres within the borders of India and Myanmar as a result of which people living in the border areas move freely in both the country within the permitted limit.
In the military coup of Myanmar two-and-a-half years ago, which was tacitly backed by China (which it vehemently denies), pro-democracy forces who resisted the military government have borne the brunt of the Junta’s attacks.
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Mizoram has welcomed them with open arms, the Manipur government has been not only inimical, it even tried to search villages to detect illegal immigrants.
Therefore, some of them have sought shelter in India’s Northeast.That is a reality as said the article by Bose. And now they are being painted as ‘illegal’.
Though an exact figure is not available, the number of illegal immigrants is believed to be somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000. How many of them were actually within the permissible limits of the Free Movement Regime is also hardly asked.
For years, India’s northeastern periphery saw the outbreak of many secessionist movements that fought for independence from India. Interestingly, the Kuki tribals are one of the rare communities among the larger tribes inhabiting the northeast whose demands have only been within the ambit of the Constitution of India.
Then why are they not granted various autonomies under the Constitution?
he first Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) formed in 1966 in its “ARC Report on Union Territories and NEFA” recommendation number eight about Manipur stated that “the hill areas of Manipur may be constituted into two autonomous districts for the Kuki and Naga tribals areas. If necessary, autonomous regions can be carved out for smaller tribal groups. Necessary statutory provision may be made for this purpose in the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963.”
If a community that fought with INA can be hunted without mercy and labelled as illegal immigrants, the fate of other tribal communities must be equally grim, if not more.
In nut shell the political power centres play their roles instead coming together to end the crisis.
With references from several opinions on the issue.
