NEW DELHI, 31 Aug: Kuki-Zo community members protested at Jantar Mantar here on Saturday, demanding action against Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh over an audio clip in which he purportedly “declared his involvement in spearheading violence” in the state.
Around 500 people, most wearing black clothes, joined the protest called by the Kuki Students’ Organisation Delhi and NCR, playing patriotic songs, chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and raising slogans against Singh. They concluded the protest by playing the national anthem.
In a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the KSO said that the Kuki-Zo community has endured an “ethnic cleansing campaign and constant attacks against it by the majority Meitei community since May 3rd, 2023.”
“The audio recording that has recently surfaced where the chief minister openly boasts about his leadership role in orchestrating the war against Kuki-Zo community and how he ordered the state forces to bomb Kuki-Zo villages, only proves what the Kuki-Zo people already know: that, the ethnic persecution of the Kuki-Zo has the full support of Meitei dominated Manipur government led by Chief Minister Shri N Biren Singh,” they said.
“If the complicity and the involvement of the state machinery and state forces in unleashing violence against the Kuki-Zo minority was ever in doubt, the audio recording mentioned above should dispel it,” they said.
The Manipur government has dismissed the recording as doctored. When asked about the clip in a PTI interview recently, Singh said, “Some people are after me… there is a conspiracy. The matter is sub-judice. I won’t talk much about it. An FIR has been filed.”
In the memorandum addressed to the PM, the protesters demanded investigation and action against the Manipur chief minister.
“Since chief minister Shri N Biren Singh has openly declared his involvement in spearheading the violence in Manipur, we demand that he be immediately arrested and a criminal investigation under the supervision of Supreme Court of India initiated against him,” it said.
“A thorough and impartial investigation has to be carried out to arrest and punish all ministers and officials involved in the ethnic persecution of the minority Kuki-Zo community,” it added.
The KSO also demanded a separate administration for Kuki-Zo areas and making them a union territory with a legislature.
They also demanded restrengthening of buffer cones, and continuing deployment of the Assam Rifles in vulnerable areas.
“There are more than fifty thousand Meitei secessionist militants amongst the Arambai Tenggol, Meitei Leepun, and United National Liberation Front who have sophisticated and automatic weapons, many acquired from state armouries by looting or through complicity.
“If these terrorists are to be stopped from attacking Kuki-Zo villages, the continued deployment of Assam Rifles in vulnerable areas of the buffer zones should not only be continued but strengthened,” they said.
At the protest, Kuki Inpi Delhi spokesperson Kim Haokip said they cannot go back to live in Imphal after all the “atrocities” committed against them. “We don’t want anything from Biren Singh. We want from the central government to look into this matter and find justice for all the Kukis. We are not demanding any separation.”
“We are demanding separate administration in the form of union territory so that we can live peacefully. We are not asking for a different state, and county. Because after all this atrocities, we cannot go back to Imphal to live,” Haokip added.
Paobul Haokip, the coordinator of the Kuki Inpi Delhi, said that the Kukis and Meiteis have lived together for years, and never thought this would happen.
“I was born and brought up in Imphal. We have all the properties and assets there in the valley. We respect each other. My seven sisters are married to Meiteis. My cousin is a DIG in Manipur and she is married to a Meitei officer. We never thought that this would happen. We want the chief minister to be removed,” Haokip said.
Kuki Students’ Organisation secretary Mang Khongsai said, “The kind of situation that prevails in Manipur today has compelled us to demand our own separate administration.”
Delhi University’s Kim said that being students it was their duty to come here and raise their voices.
“The current situation in Manipur is very sensitive. The government should listen to us and grant us separate administration with union territory status and a legislative assembly, so that we can directly connected with the Central government. An immediate action should be taken against Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh,” he said. (PTI)