11 Questions to the NSCN-IM & the Government of India (GOI)

By: (MC MEETEI)

Coordinator

Manipur International Youth Centre

Manipur has been facing severe political unrest since its annexation to India in 1949 vis-à-vis the NSCN-IM’s ceaseless subversive attempts to disintegrate Manipur since its birth on 30 April 1988 for the emancipation of a pan-Naga state. The peace talk between the NSCN-IM and the Government of India (GOI) has rendered even more fear for the disruption of the Manipur’s territorial boundary. The Manipur International Youth Centre (MIYC) recognizes the NSCN-IM as an armed opposition group struggling for a sovereign Nagaland and not for taking up arms just to break up Manipur’s physical and political boundary. The GOI’s attitude towards Manipur while resolving the Indo-Naga Conflict is suspicious of the possible use of the Article 3(c) of the Constitution of India against Manipur if necessary just to wipe out Naga’s political struggle forever.

Historically speaking, both the NSCN-IM and GOI cannot touch even a square inch of Manipur. If the GOI violates the present territorial boundary of Manipur for the sake of resolving the Indo-Naga Conflict or to appease the NSCN-IM, it will be like opening the Pandora’s Box that will eventually lead to a never before seen massive Manipur Peoples’ Struggle to secede away from India. These political uncertainty has prompted the MIYC to table these 11 (Eleven) Questions before the NSCN-IM and GOI to let them know the historical and the political nature of the ancient Asiatic Power, Manipur. The MIYC prays a peaceful solution to the Indo-Naga Conflict with the Framework agreement not touching even a square inch of Manipur.

11 Questions to the NSCN-IM & the Government of India (GOI)

1. Manipur, with 2 millennia old documented history is an ancient Asiatic Power ruled successively by 76 kings since 33AD. The frontiers of Manipur extended upto the confluence of the Chindwin and the Irrawady River of the present Myanmar (Burma) and even upto the banks of the Brahmaputra River in Assam. The forest between Doyeng and Dhunsiri formed the boundary between Manipur and Assam. There was no Nagaland at that time. The sovereign power of Manipur entered into its first international treaty, the “Anglo-Manipuri Treaty, 1762”, that affirmed the boundary of Manipur.

Can the NSCN-IM produce any of its so-called Naga unique history to negate the erstwhile Manipur’s territorial expansion and deny the existence of the Manipur’s 2 millennia old documented history?

Did India have any international treaty making power in 1762?

2. Nagaland is an Indian state recently carved out of Assam in 1963. Manipur became a democratic republic in 1948, much ahead of India. India annexed Manipur on 15 October 1949 as a whole and not part by part.

Can both the NSCN-IM and the GOI say that the annexation of Manipur by India was not in clear violation of the Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, of which India is a signatory member?

3. Can the GOI say that the territorial area of Manipur did not shrink/recede after India’s annexation of Manipur by completely transferring Manipur’s Kabaw Valley to Burma in 1953 by Nehru without consulting any leader of Manipur?

Can the NSCN-IM produce any historical documents to prove that the Kabaw Valley was also Naga’s ancestral domain?

4. The Henry Yule Map of 1500AD clearly shows Manipur’s territorial expansion bordering Tripura, Assam, Cachar, Pong Nora and Ava and the non-existence of Nagaland.

Do the NSCN-IM and GOI produce any such map to locate Naga inhabited area at that time or India’s occupation of Manipur at that time?

5. If India supports NSCN-IM’s hidden agenda of a pan-Naga state including some areas of Burma; forget about alleged areas of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, can India declare war on Burma and capture the Burmese territory for the formation of the pan-Naga state to appease the NSCN-IM?

6. If the Nagas do have the so called their unique history, can both the NSCN-IM and the GOI produce any factum and facto history that reveals at least 10 successive Naga Kings or Emperors that ruled their so called Naga’s ancestral land?

7. Bangkok Declaration, 2001 turned the Kekrupat into a graveyard.

Please tell if the Framework Agreement of the NSCN-IM and the GOI, 2015 has any subversive plan to create another graveyard in Manipur?

8. Can the GOI give any concrete reason why the Central/Union government cannot lift the      2-months’ long economic blockade imposed by one of the NSCN-IM’s frontal organization along the National Highways passing through Manipur? The GOI overlooks the criminality of the economic blockade imposed by the UNC but asks for the release of the arrested UNC members.

Is there any India’s game plan to create a communal clash in Manipur?

Does the same Indian law have different implications on different individuals, CSOs or the like?

9. If India threatens the present territorial boundary of Manipur existing within the West South East Asian Region, shall both the NSCN-IM and the GOI be able to prevent the regaining of the lost sovereignty of Manipur if any sovereign member of the United Nations petitions the International Court of Justice against the illegal Indian occupation of Manipur in 1949 or any Veto Power Country vetoes the UN Security Council for Manipur’s Independence from India?

Does the Naga’s unique history have such strong historical and political foundation?

10. Can India violate the territorial integrity of Manipur under the UTI Possidetis Juris Rule; forget about NSCN-IM’ dream for the balkanization of Manipur?

The NSCN-IM people can give the answer if they please.

11. Why did the GOI put on trial the culprits of the Parliament Attack and the Mumbai Terror Attack and not the culprits who committed massive genocide of innocent Kukis in the 1990s?

Does the Indian criminal Law grant impunity to those who committed the said genocide?

In the end, the MIYC firmly believes that the GOI cannot bring permanent peace and security in India’s troubled North East Region by resolving only the Indo-Naga Conflict. The GOI has to look out for some other practical options. Here, we at the Manipur International Youth Centre (MIYC) appeal the GOI under the leadership of Mr. Narendra Modi to declare unilateral ceasefire for a period of six months or one year to all the armed opposition groups in north east India more particularly Manipur to initiate an amicable peace process to bring permanent peace and security in the region.