A day after the proscribed umbrella group Coordination Committee (CorCom) called for a total-shutdown across Manipur on October 15 to voice protest against the merger of Manipur with the Indian union, proscribed outfits, Alliance for Socialist Unity, Kangleipak and National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) has called for 12-hour shutdown in Manipur and Tripura on October 15.
The 12-hour total shutdown will come into effect from 6 AM till 6 PM with exemptions for medical, fire services, media and traditional and customary activities.
According to a report in The Frontier Manipur, CorCom, in a release said that on September 21, 1949, the then king of Manipur, Bodhachandra was forced to sign the Merger Agreement, after the Indian forces surrounded his Bungalow in Shillong, against international laws and without the consent of the people of the state. On October 15 of the same year, Manipur, which has been an ‘Asiatic sovereign state’ in WESEA, was annexed by the “imperialist Indian union”, and became a part of it. “Manipur (Kangleipak) existed as an independent kingdom having a written constitution in the Western South East Asia (WESEA), until it was defeated by the British in Anglo-Manipur war in 1891. It then became a protectorate state till 1947. According to Indian Independence Act, 1947 (IIA), the British suzerainty lapsed and the sovereign independent status was returned to Manipur like other princely states of India. With a written constitution, it began governing itself. But as part of the “expansionist policy” of India, Manipur was subdued from the beginning.
CorCom also urged the people to support the struggle to regain the independence of Manipur
Meanwhile, a joint release by ASUK chairman N Oken and NLFT president H Uastwng Borok on Monday, according to The Frontier Manipur said, “On October 15, 1949, Manipur and Twipra (Tripura) were compelled to merge with the fledgling Indian Union, a confederation forged out of a “mere geographical expression” by swallowing up forcefully most of around 600 culturally and ethnically heterogeneous princely states.” The joint release further said, “Now under the present dispensation, the pace of our national demolition has been accelerated blatantly. Ram Rajya has become fascist Rajya. Federalism has been pushed behind. The slogan of ‘one nation, one language, one religion, one identity, one law, one party, one leader’ is at the top of the national agenda. For us, the rimland non-Indian minorities, national death is imminent.”
Also read: Go To Hills 2.0, Kangpokpi: CM N Biren, “All Communities Residing in Manipur are One”
