Contrary to Amit Shah's Assertion, Manipur Already Divided into Two Seats

Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement on protecting “Manipur territorial integrity” is just an eyewash to please the Meitei electorates, as the same is not reflected in the BJP Official Document - Sankalp Patra (Manifesto).

“Integrity of Manipur” is a bogus phrase, devoid of any substance. The fact of the matter is, the State is already “broken” into pieces. The partition of Manipur was completed on May 3, 2023, more or less similar to the case of India and Pakistan in 1947.

Albeit the territorial integrity, emotional integration too has been absolutely absent in the minds of the people. Any political leader can shout at the top of his or her voice on a stage, particularly during election campaigns, make promises that are ludicrous meant only for scoring political points, but their genuine interests are categorically reflected in their official written document. Here, the BJP’s manifesto neither made any promises on the so-called “integration” nor made any mention of a “separate administration.”

However, the reality is that total separation has been in existence since the 3rd of May 2023 under the BJP’s double-engine governments. Demographic exchange has been done and the Meitei people cannot cross over to any of the Kukis’ territory and vice versa. The Buffer zones or Lines of Control has been drawn, maintained and guarded by the respective village volunteers along with the central security forces.

In addition, the Bharatiya Janata Party has nothing for show on the table before the people, as do they not bear the guts to mention the protection of Manipur territorial integrity in their Manifesto. The noticeable absence of their planned solution to the Manipur mayhem in their manifesto is a clear indication that Modi government at the centre has implicitly acknowledged the breakdown of Manipur into two States.

Amit Shah also said that a conspiracy has been hatched to change the demography of the small State through illegal migration; and to that he said, the BJP government has decided to end the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the Indo- Myanmar border which enabled drug-trade. Here, the Union Home Minister was misrepresented by the fascist Chief Minister, N. Biren Singh and his political cohorts. Analysing the official document of the Election Commission of India (Electoral Rolls) clearly points to no demographic changes with respect to the Kuki population in Manipur. The official Census 2011 also demonstrated the normal growth of the Kuki population. As per data collected by N. Biren Singh government, the number of illegal immigrants from Myanmar, as a result of the humanitarian crisis in the country, is just about 2000- 5000 people. Most of whom have now been deported.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday also said that the BJP-led central government’s priority is to establish peace and harmony in the ethnic-strife that affected Manipur and ruled out any division of the northeastern state.

This Lok Sabha elections is between forces trying to break Manipur and those keeping it united, Shah said at a public meeting in Imphal. “No matter how hard anyone tries, we will not let anyone divide Manipur”, he said.

However, it should be noted that it is rather the BJP government that divided the people of Manipur. It has been broken to such a large extent and will never be the same again, as it is now beyond repair. The BJP leader must realise that fixing the Manipur crisis by formalising a ‘Separate Administration’ for the Kukis is far more important than scoring political points.

The besieged, sandwiched and beleaguered Kuki people’s demand is not to break the integrity of the 650-700 square miles “Meiteis’ Manipur”; but rather the “restoration of their lost freedom” enjoyed by their forefathers/ancestors, who bravely fought the mighty British Empire in defence of their ancestral land and freedom.