The “fall of the Berlin Wall” paved the way for German reunification, which formally took place on 3 October 1990. Seven years down the line, here in the erstwhile kingdom of Manipur, then became a state of India, started construction of a virtual wall to divide the state into pieces. Twenty two years later, the virtual wall is nearing completion, and today frustration haunts the people. Ideological symbiosis between the different communities of the state is nearing to perish. The strength of unity that once fought the aggressive storm blown from the Northern block is now history. The strength to resist external invasion that will be leading the ideology of this community towards different direction has been weaken. Hadn’t this virtual wall be opened and stitch the divide between various communities today, in another ten years, children of the time may not feel the pride of being born as Manipuri or say Naga (as desire by some).
Each and every communities knows that its time that we the people of this region particularly the people belonging to various ethnic communities of Manipur unites to jointly resist the move for introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in the next one or two day. Justification to the CAB by some vested interested sons of this soil will not help in fooling the people as we all know that there is an agenda. Insertion of a clause to the CAB 2016, tabled during the last government, for skipping of some North Eastern states including Manipur is an excuse that will serve no purpose to the resistance of the people. Manipur’s Meitei community, who are mostly Hindu and the Naga and Kuki Community who are mostly Christian, could have accepted if Myanmar is included among the countries which was stated in the Bill. Picking up of only Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan is a revelation of the Agenda of RSS and BJP. This is being said because there are 1000s and 1000s of Manipuri Hindu , whose right has been deprived by the Myanmar authority by not allowing them to give a Hindu name and treated like a second class citizen. There are also many Christian Naga and Kuki who face similar fate in that country. This is known to every think tank of India and one wander why should the CAB be from only three countries, when the real religion persecution is being faced by either Hindu or Christian living in Myanmar whose origin is the state of Manipur.
When state like Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland which have special legislation to tackle the influx of migrants stood against the CAB, on what ground would the state of Manipur accept the CAB. As of today there are no legislation to safeguard the state of Manipur and the Bill passed by the state Assembly for protection of the state from the invasion by the migrants still is not given assent by the President of India.
On the other hand, we do know that those expected to applied citizenship under the CAB (if suppose it becomes a law of the nation) is likely to be mostly persons who are struggling for survival. We also know that concerns for religion come next after they settled, as Bangladesh is a country which cannot give equal economic supports to all its citizen. Most influx might be the Muslim community by birth and no Indian authority will know which religion these migrants belong to. If one watch the Bollywood movie “Jolly LLB -2” , where Bollywood superstar Askshay Kumar play the role of an advocate, how a Muslim terrorist took shelter posing himself as a Brahmin. A saffron dress , or a lugoon or pair of Chandan on the forehead is enough to proof that he is a Hindu. Under the CAB it is also possible that many such imposters can take advantage to become a citizen of India. And let us assumed a Bangladeshi granted citizenship under CAB at other part of the country entered the north eastern states like Manipur , will the government have legal tools to resist them from entering the state.
The agenda is crystal clear, and at this crucial time the people of the entire North East particularly in the state of Manipur and Nagaland, people of all community need to have a break for some time over the issue of Naga and its final settlement. It is time to reconcile and stand united to chart an effective strategy and fight the CAB. As we also know that they (the BJP) will certainly pass the Bill in the next some few days as they now have numbers in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, there should be a clause that Meitei (Hindu) and Christian (Naga and Kuki) from Myanmar will also be granted citizenship in addition to the three country stated in the CAB.
