Three Bills On ILP `“Aftermath And Future Course Of Action
By Dr. Khomdon Lisam
Manipur belongs to the Meiteis, Nagas, Kukis, Meitei Pangans. Without Meiteis, Nagas, Kukis , Meitei Pangans, we can not call it Manipur. The Nagas and Kukis have sacrificed their lives for protecting the sovereignty, independence, unity and integrity of Manipur. Chirai Naga alias Chirai Thangal of Mayangkhang aged 30 years was hanged by the British on 13th Oct. 1891 inside the jail for killing and cutting off the head of a British Telegraph officer, W.B. Melville. He died for protecting the sovereignty of Manipur. Niranjan Subadar, son of Daria Singh Chetri aged 39 years of village Tikuamoh joined the native force of Manipur and later appointed as Subadar by the Tikendrajit Jubraj after leaving the regular British Army of the 34th Native Infantry. He was hanged by the neck for assisting the Manipuris against the British. on 8th June, 1891. He died for his country. Chowkami Naga of Mayangkhang and Gowho Naga of Mayangkhang were sentenced to transportation for life by the British to Andamans and Nicobar
Islands (Kalapani) on 7th March, 1892 on the charge of (1) Murder of Signaller O`™Brien and (2) Abetment of murder of Mr.Melville ( vide Administration Report of the Political Agency , Manipur for 1906-1907 ) (Vide Secretary to the Chief Commissioner`™s letter No. 1822 dated 23rd April, 1892).
The main worry of the Manipuris is the unabated influx of outside migrants from other states of India for the last 65 years with the risk of reducing the Manipuris into minority or even extinct as happened in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Tripura and some districts of Assam. Now the outside migrants is dominating the markets. They have purchased lands in many parts of Manipur valley. The married local girls to claim their rights to land properties. Many of the outside migrants have become crorepatis after arrival in Manipur. The risk will be greater with the arrival of Railways and implementation of Look East or Act East Policy. That is why the Manipur State Assembly passed the three Bills.
Many people say that the business class of outside migrants in Manipur are secretly financing and instigating the tribal to ignite an uprising against the Meiteis to stall the implementation of the three Bills. We should not allow ourselves to be trapped at the hands of the outside migrants.
Is the Meiteis communal as charged by the hill people ?
The Meiteis once lived in the hills and migrated to the valley in search of better prospects. Why the hill people of Manipur blamed the Meiteis as communal on every issue. Why the hill people take it as a matter of honour, pride, popularity and prestige to carry out Anti-Meitei activities and slogans `“that too by sitting at Imphal. Is there anything wrong with the Meiteis mind set. The conflict between the Meiteis and Hill people started when the Meiteis became partial Hindus in 1732 under King Garib Niwaz (1709-48) and when the hill people became partial Christians with gradual conversion to Christianity with the arrival of William Pettigrew in February, 1894 although we claim to be pure Hindus and pure Christians. Further, with the merger of Manipur to India on October 15, 1949 AD and with the adoption of the Indian constitution on 26 January, 1950, the Government of India inserted a highly discriminatory article 370C in the Indian Constitution without consulting the Manipur Government to keep us divided and to keep Manipur on the boil all the time. Let us see some of the facts :-
There are more than 150,000 Kabuis, Tangkhuls, Maring, Aimol Chiru, Thadou, Paite, Hmar, Chothe, Vaiphei, Zou Gangte, Kom, Monsang, .Moyon, Poumai, Purum etc. settled in the valley with pattas of their homestead land under the Manipur Land Revenue & Land Reforms Act-1960. The valley land once purchased by a tribal can not be sold to a Metei without the approval of the deputy commissioner under the Act. But the Meities can not buy land in the hills. The Meiteis never complained about the discriminatory provision of the land law passed by the Indian Parliament. They never complained even if some tribal encroached over the valley land for constructing illegal buildigs, churches without patta. The Meiteis never complained even if some Imphal-based tribal leaders talk of redrawing the map of Manipur for greater Nagaland or Kuki homeland-that too by sitting at Imphal. The Meiteis never complained even if more than 200 Trucks and Buses are looted of Rs, 3000 to 5000 from every vehicle everyday by the NSCN-IM under the nose of Indian Army or state police. The Meiteis never retaliated against frequent killing of poor Meitei drivers along the national highways and talented Meitei Officers. Is it due to stupidity or timidity on the part of the Meiteis ? No hill leader got elected if he does not talk of anti-Meitei activities and chant anti-Meitei slogans. After getting elected, the first thing they do is to buy land and construct palatial buildings in the valley. The tribal MLAs and Bureaucrats sell off the materials earmarked for hills and siphoned off funds earmarked for hills, buy costly cars and blamed the Meiteis for underdevelopment of hills. The Hill MLAs did not raise any voice while the three Bills were passed on 31 July, 2015. For the last 65 years, the Meiteis has been indulging in appeasement policies of the hill brothers because of common origin and blood relations between Meiteis and hill people. That is the duty of the Meiteis as a major community to sacrifice their interest for the sake of unity and solidarity between Meiteis and hill people. This should not be interpreted as cowardice, stupidity or communalism on the part of Meiteis.
One thing Meiteis may learn from our hill brothers and sisters is their unity and solidarity for a common cause. The intellectual groups of Meiteis remain silent on important state issues. They do not understand that their silence is damaging the future of their sons and daughters and the destiny of the state. What kind of future we will hand over to our children for peace, unity and development of Manipur is a big question. We can not see or identify any issue to fight for and to die for. We live for nothing and die for nothing. We should choose between live for nothing or die for something.
What is wrong with the three Bills ?
On 31 August, 2015, the Manipur State Legislative Assembly has passed three bills to protect indigenous people of Manipur -(1) the Manipur Peoples Protection Bill-2015 (2) the Manipur Land Revenue & Land Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill 2015 (3) the Manipur Shops & Establishment (Second Amendment Bill -2015. On the same day at about 6 pm before knowing the details of the Bill, a mob in Churachandpur erupted into violence ransacking and setting fire on the houses of Shri Phungzathang Tonsing , Hon`™ble Health Minister, Shri Vungzagin Valte, Hon`™ble MLA of Thanlon Constituency. The mob also attacked the residences of Ginsuanhau, Hon`™ble MLA of Singhat, shri Manga Vaiphei , Hon`™ble MLA of Henglep constituency. Mr. Lunminthang Haokip, Deputy Commissioner imposed CrPC-144 with effect from 7 pm of the same day to control the mob. Till date eight lives have been lost and many are injured due to police firing. The people have declared the eight victims as Martyrs on 4th September, 2015. The indiscriminate police firing leading to death of eight people should be condemned in the strongest terms and the Government should conduct an enquiry and compensate the loss.
The three Bills were passed with the objectives of protection of indigenous people of Manipur including hill people. While the Manipur Peoples Protection Bill-2015 has some flaws, there is nothing wrong with the other two Bills.
Clarification of the Hill Areas Committee, Manipur
Dr. Chalton Lien Amo, Hon`™ble Chairman of Hill Areas Committee, Manipur declared on 1 August, 2015 that the three Bills passed by the Manipur State Assembly do not contain anything which may impinge upon the interest of the tribal people and the violent reactions which erupted was the result of misunderstanding . ( Sangai Express dated 2-8-2015)
Clarification by the State Government
Shri Gaikhangam, Hon`™ble Deputy Chief Minister, Manipur clarified on 2nd August, 2015 that the Bills are meant to protect the indigenous people and not against any community. People should read. study and analyze the three Bills before agitating against the Bill.
Are the three Bills Communal ?
The eruption of violence even before the three Bills are made public shows that the protestors have not studied or read the three Bills between the lines. There is nothing communal or discriminatory provision in the three Bills.
What are the main reasons for the violent eruption ?
The main reasons for the mob violence in Churachandpur are `“
(a)Definition of `Manipur people `. According to the Manipur Peoples Protection Bill-2015, Manipur People is defined as ` Persons of Manipur whose names are found in the National Register of Citizens, 1951 or Census Report of 1951 or Village Directory of 1951 and their descendants, who have contributed collective social, social, cultural and economic life of Manipur. Considering the level of literacy in 1951, lack of communication facilities, lack of transport facilities, lack of record keeping facilities and skills and ignorance of the people, some of the indigenous people might face the risk of being identified as foreigner. This fear is genuine considering the standard of record keeping being in force in 1951.
(b) Cut off year 1951
The Manipur Peoples Protection Bill-2015 mentioned cut off year as 1951 based on National Register of Citizens, 1951 or Census Report of 1951 or Village Directory of 1951. This cut off date may hold good for the outside migrants from other states. But this creates a fear psychosis among the people considering the risk of being identified as foreigners. This cut off date may not be practicable and may be objected by His Excellency, the Governor of Manipur or His Excellency ,the President of India considering the Citizens act-1955 and the Indira -Mujib Treaty of 1972.
Under the Citizens Act-1955, Indian Citizenship is granted to any person born in India on or before 3rd December, 2004 if one of the parents is a citizen of India and the other is not an illegal migrant at the time of his/her birth.
Who is an Illegal immigrant ?
As per section 2(1)(b) of the Citizenship Act of 1955 an `illegal immigrant` are those people who enter into Indian Territory: `“
(a) without a valid passport or other travel documents and such other document or authority as may be prescribed by or under any law in that behalf; or
(b) with a valid passport or other travel documents and such other document or authority as may be prescribed by or under any law in that behalf but remains therein beyond the permitted period of time.
Dangerous consequences of large scale illegal migration entering Manipur
The Bangladeshis often come on pretext of visiting their relatives and then continue to live there forever. Political leaders include them in the voters list to help them in wining the election. For the last 25-30 years, the outside migrants are treated as vote banks .The They even help them in inhabiting them there and do nothing to stop further flow of illegal migrants. Sitting MLA of Jiribam, Minister Debendra is one of them, the villager of Jiribam said.
The large scale illegal migration from Bangladesh and Myanmar may lead to dangerous consequences for the people of Manipur as well as for the Nation. This is not democracy or secularism. Some of the dangerous consequences are (1) possibility of reducing the indigenous people of Manipur into a minority in their home State as happened in Andaman Nicobar, Tripura, Assam. The silent, armless and bloodless demographic invasion of Jiribam is turning the original population of Jiribam into minority. ( A Romenkumar Singh, IPS -retired) (2) increased security threat to the Nation and to the State (3) increased crimes (4) increased Drug Trafficking (3) increased human trafficking (4) increased spread of HIV/AIDS (5) increased threat to the identity, land, language, culture, traditions, employment, script, mineral resources of the indigenous people.
In 1998, the then Assam governor sent a secret report to the President informing that influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh continued unabated into the state, perceptibly changing its demographic pattern and reducing the Assamese people to a minority in their own state. It had become a contributory factor for outbreak of insurgency in the state, he said. The same is applicable to Manipur.
Mr. Bikram Singh, Ex-Chief Of Army Staff, speaking at a seminar in New Delhi organised by a security think tank, said on 13 February, 2014 that the problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh has led to demographic changes in the northeast India. He said that illegal migration has also led to serious internal security challenges in the north East India. It can happen only in India, where vote-bank politics scores decisively over national interest and issues relating to India`s sovereignty.
The Governor of Assam, Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha (Retired), ex- Deputy Chief of Army Staff , in a report dated 8th November, 1998 stated that there were many contributory factors facilitating infiltration from Bangladesh – “Ethnic, linguistic and religious commonality between the illegal migrants and many people on our side of the border enables them to find shelter. It makes their detection difficult. Some political parties have been encouraging and even helping illegal migration with a view to building vote banks. The immigrants are hardworking and are prepared to work as cheap labour and domestic help for lower remuneration than the local people. This makes them acceptable. Moreover, with corruption being all pervasive, corrupt officials are bribed to provide help.” (http://www.ukessays.com/essays/law/the-bangladeshi-infiltration-problem-and-international-refugee-laws-international-law-essay.php). Similar situation is happening in Manipur.
According to the Hon`™ble Supreme Court by a bench of 3 Judges in Sarabananda Sonowal v. Union of India (2005) 5 SCC 665 at paras.55, 56 and 60 `Illegal migrants from neighbouring country amounts to an aggression of a worst order` The Supreme Court reported in Assam Sanmilta Mahasangha v. Union of India, (2015) 3 SCC 1 `such an influx of foreigners is `EXTERNAL AGGRESSION` within the meaning of Article 355 of the constitution of India. The Supreme Court held that the foremost duty of the Central Government is to defend the borders of the country, prevent any trespass and make the life of the citizens safe and secure. The Government also has a duty to prevent any internal disturbance and maintain law and order
The Hon`™ble Supreme Court in the Sarbananda Sonowal