IMPHAL, November 25: Over a thousand of Nagas including school students today organized a rally at Ukhrul district head quarter reiterating the demand for alternative arrangement under the aegis of United Naga Council (UNC).
Representatives of All Naga Students Association Manipur-(ANSAM), United Naga Council (UNC), Naga Women Union, committee for alternative arrangement, Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL) and Tangkhul Kamtamnao Saklong (TKS) participated in the rally.
The rally set off from two directions, Tongrei Junction and Karasom Junction and later converged at Gandhi Chowk where a public meeting was also held.
The rallyists chanted slogans through-out the rally “No alternative arrangement no rest”, “No Naga solution no rest” and “future of the Nagas, decision of the Nagas”.
The placards saying “Land of Nagas not Ibobi’s Property”, “Territorial Integrity of Manipur Lies in Imphal Valley”, “Sever the tie that binds” etc were also displayed during the rally.
Normal life in the district was disrupted for several hours owing to the rally and meeting. During this period all business establishment remained defunct while vehicles stay off the roads. The meet ended around 1 pm peacefully.
While speaking during the ceremony UNC’s publicity secretary, S. Milan, said that Nagas have been divided by bifurcating its land for several decades but the Nagas can no longer tolerate further division.
He warned that the consequences would be grave if the land of the Nagas is further bifurcated without their consent.
The UNC active functionary while talking to media persons at the sideline of the gathering opined that they (UNC) would take up various forms of agitations until the demand for ‘alternative arrangement’ is met by the government concerned before asserting that the ‘alternative arrangement’ should be outside the government of Manipur.
When ask on possibilities of lifting the counter economic blockade considering the hardship of the people, S. Milan said “only time and situation will tell”. He maintained that it was the right time for the people of Manipur to rise up against the state government and take initiatives to ensure that the wrong being done to the Nagas is justified.
The gathering also adopted a common declaration re-affirming to jointly fight for the rightful aspirations till the demand of the Nagas is achieved.
“We have recommitted ourselves to the declaration of the Naga peoples’ convention of July 1, 2010 to sever all political ties with the communal government of Manipur and to demand from the government of India for an alternative arrangement to fill up the vacuum in governance and administration created thereby”, declared the declaration.
The declaration further appeal the government of India to recognize the ‘unmistakable’ facts that calls for severance of ties with the ‘communal’ government of Manipur, alleging that it has established hegemony over the years to illegitimately deny the rights, land, identity, culture, time honoured traditional institutions and practices of the Nagas and tribals, and to therefore, intervene with an alternative arrangement outside the government of Manipur.
It further asserted that “through this declaration we, the Tangkhul Nagas in the witness of the UNC and other Naga frontal organizations, put on record that the situation is fragile, sensitive and explosive and has all the potential for communal conflagration should the GOI continue to adopt a wait and watch policy. Therefore the onus lies on the government of India to save the situation and intervene at the earliest possible time”.
While pledging to continue to fight for their rightful aspirations till their demands is achieved, it urged the government of India to exercise its political will to bring an honourable and acceptable settlement of the Indo-Naga issue at the earliest, notwithstanding any attempts to sabotage this process.