If one recalled the intensity of people’s movement particularly by the student community for implementation of a ‘regulation’ to protect the endangered indigenous people of Manipur; there will be no words to thank to all those brave hearts for what Manipur gets today. The horror scene at DM College campus, at which students staging peaceful protest demanding ‘regulations’ for protection of the indigenous people were pushed in a close room and assaulted without any mercy treating them even worst then their enemy, still continue to haunt to the mind of many. The climax of the protest was reached after armed police personnel fired towards a group of protesting students which cause the death of class -XI student Sapam Robinhood in Imphal East district.
May be the heat of the protest reached out to the political leaders sitting at the Center or may be for other reason, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that Manipur will be included under Inner Line permit regime on December 9, 2012 in the Parliament of India while moving the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and following that the – the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 which has been already in force in the North Eastern States id Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, was introduced in Manipur with Effect from January 1, 2020.
Robinhood, the class XI student of Ananda Singh Higher Secondary School, who was killed during the agitation for implementation of ILPS in the state was remembered today on his 7th Death Anniversary. People from all wake of lives excluding those elected representatives of the state today pay tribute to the departed soul who sacrificed for the cause of the people of the state at Ananda Singh Higher Secondary School and at Awa Ching – the memorial site of Robinhood.
The agitation which Robinhood joined without fear along with other students and people of the state was spearheaded by the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS).
January 1, 2020, when the state framed guidelines for implementation of the regulations, the JCILPS, strongly criticized the content as the regulations did not define who are the indigenous people as per the guideline and who are to be considered as the indigenous people of Manipur as per the regulations frame under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. The JCILPS term the regulations as toothless tiger that will not serve its purpose. Now, the State government of Manipur had enclosed a base year to define the indigenous people as 1961 on June 24 this year. Indeed, the criticism to the ILPS regulations framed by state was non-inclusion of a base year that will define the indigenous people of the state. There are people who are not satisfied with the 1961 as base year as they have been demanding 1951 as base year. On the other hand, a handful of people argued about the need for inclusion of base year in the ILPS regulations on the ground that such base year have not been included in the ILPS that are implemented at Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
But one thing that is commonly understand by all is that even after the inclusion of the base year in the ILPS regulations of Manipur, the state does not give a concrete definition of who should be the ‘Indigenous people’ of Manipur. The necessity of base years comes when the state feel that the state should follow the same National Register for Citizens (NRC) as implemented in the state of Assam.
Even after, the implementation of the ILPS, the actual demand that the people wished has not been given. Even though thousands pay floral tribute to the departed son of the soil, Sapam Robinhood for his sacrifice of the land, the demand that late Robinhood – Our Lamjing Meira is still not received.
It is no time that we celebrate the 7th Death Anniversary of Sapam Robinhood but rather moment to ponder on why we people should not follow the path that Rabinhood had taken for the cause of the people.
Lamjing Meira Robinhood and Manipur with ILPS today
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