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Continuing to press for a “separate administration” for the Kuki-Zomi community in the wake of recent ethnic violence in Manipur, a slew of the community’s legislators and its civil society bodies held a four-hour-long meeting in neighbouring Mizoram’s capital Aizawl, resolving not to engage in any “talk or dialogue” with the N Biren Singh-led Manipur government.
The delegates from Manipur who attended the meeting comprised eight Kuki MLAs, including MLAs from the ruling BJP, and representatives of the civil society groups such as the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, Kuki Inpi Manipur, Zomi Council and Hmar Inpui, among others.
“We have taken a firm decision that no politician or civil society organisation will have any dialogue with the Manipur government,” said a source present at the meeting held on Wednesday.
The meeting came days after the Kuki legislators met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi to reiterate their demand for a “separate administration” for the Kuki-Zomi areas, charging that they had “lost faith” in the Manipur government following the violence that convulsed the Northeastern state in early May.
On May 12, 10 Kuki MLAs, including seven from the BJP, had issued a statement, urging the Centre to create a “separate administration” for the Kuki-Zomi tribes, alleging that the state of Manipur had “miserably failed to protect” them. Living in Meitei areas after these clashes “is as good as death for our people”, they said in the statement.
However, CM Biren Singh had rejected their demand, asserting that the “territorial integrity of Manipur will be protected at all costs”.
The violence had erupted between the Meitei and Kuki communities in Churachandpur on May 3 during a rally by a tribal students’ group, and escalated into arson and riots across Manipur. The ethnic clashes that ensued has claimed 73 lives so far.
A legislator present at the Aizawl meeting told The Indian Express that the delegates resolved to form a “coordination committee” comprising legislators and civil society leaders to decide the next course of action on their “separate administration” demand. “Wednesday’s meeting was like a family discussion. We will have a more clear idea on the steps moving forward in the next few days. We will be reaching out to other [non-Kuki-Zomi] tribal groups as well,” the legislator, requesting anonymity, said.
A statement issued by the delegates on Thursday said: “The meeting decided to hold consultation on a wider scale at the earliest so as to arrive on a… common political agenda with other groups.”
Meanwhile, the Centre has told the Kuki legislators that its “first priority” is to restore peace and normalcy in Manipur and that other demands or questions would be looked into later, sources said.
According to the legislator, however, things seemed to be “peaceful on the face of it” only because there had been a “complete transfer of population between the hills and the valleys in Manipur”.
“Meiteis are in the valley and Kukis are in the hills. There is no one to fight each other…as on the ground, it is all divided,” the legislator said. “Our Kuki people can never go back to Imphal after what has happened…that is why we want a separate administration to protect ourselves,” he said.
