Nagas in Manipur oppose Kukis’ separate administration demand

United Naga Council (UNC), the apex body of the Nagas in Manipur, on Monday objected to the demand of a Kuki organisation for the creation of the posts of Chief Secretary and Director General of Police or equivalents in the Kuki areas.

Ten Manipur MLAs belonging to the Kuki-Zo community, including seven from the BJP, had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week demanding creation of the posts of DGP and Chief Secretary for the Kuki inhabited hill districts of Manipur.

The 10 MLAs and two leading tribal bodies -- Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) and Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) -- have also been demanding separate administrations for the tribals.

The demand was opposed by both the Centre and the state government.

The UNC said in a statement: “While the Nagas have better sense of hardships, distresses etc. borne by the Kuki-Zo people as the consequence of the present ethnic conflict, it has become all the more inevitable for the Nagas to register our opposition to the issues raised and incorporated in their memorandum submitted to different authorities as it is posing a big threat to the very existence and inalienable rights of the Nagas, particularly in the state of Manipur.”

The United Naga Council has been putting in all possible efforts to end the ongoing ethnic conflict between the warring communities of Kuki-Zo and Meiteis through dialogue, but unfortunately things are not turning positive as expected, the statement said.

It claimed that the Nagas are also taken aback by the blatant lies, lop-sided history and fabricated information contained in every statement and memorandum issued by the Kuki-Zo community, which is tantamount to distortion of Naga history and insult to the Naga people.

With regard to land, the Nagas' opposition to the creation of new districts in 2016 remains alive as an unfinished issue, the UNC said, adding that of the districts, the ones carved out from Senapati and Chandel districts are the handiworks of the Congress government's appeasement policy carried out in the name of administrative convenience.

"Hence, the demand for separate administration which incorporates the so-called new two districts is necessarily opposed. The Nagas' stand on the opposition remains unchanged. The bifurcation of the so-called two districts is an issue virtually with the Kukis only, not with Zo people," the Naga body said.

Columns of illegal camps are being built at an alarming rate near the town of Moreh and its surrounding areas to facilitate the settlement of those intruding Kukis from Myanmar, it said.

If the flow of illegal immigrants is not stopped by the Centre and the state government, the day would not be long when the indigenous population would be reduced to a minority, the Naga body claimed.

The UNC said the August 16 memorandum sent to the Prime Minister by 10 MLAs demanding the creation of the posts of Chief Secretary and Director General of Police or equivalents, is nothing but a mere different tune sung out of the same lyrics -- the demand for separate administration.

In this regard too, the Nagas are not with the Kukis as it involves the problems raised above, it said.

Moreover, it is completely uncanny and unfortunate on the part of the Kuki-Zo people to have clubbed Chandel district along with the so-called Tengnoupal district together with Churachandpur district as their land, the Naga organisation said.

The Nagas urged the Kukis to show the basis of the inclusion, stating that Nagas will not remain silent over the issue.

The Nagas believe that nothing in this regard is too late to set the wrong to right, the UNC statement stated.