Manipur which has been facing problems due to heavy influx of illegal immigrants, a volatile political situation has developed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to go ahead with the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
The assurance of the PM in Guwahati that the Bill will not affect people of the Northeast had no takers in Manipur and the PM’s visit to the region on Saturday was followed by announcement of series of stirs in the region.
Since last night, hundreds of women came out in the streets and announced their decision to fight till the end against the Prime Minister’s contentious policy, which threatens to wipe out the indigenous people of the region.
The women slept in the streets, refusing to go back. They said they will sleep in the streets until the Prime Minister realises the problem of the region though he was aware of the problems of the people in the neighbouring countries. It is a question of life and death for the people, while it was just a matter of politics to win votes for the Prime Minister the women said. All the markets including the iconic women’s markets remained closed today.
Laishram Mema Devi, president of Apunba Keithel Phambi Nupi Lup (body of the women’s market) said the women vendors will be on strike till February 12. In different areas of the state today people staged sit-in protests and burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister, Rajnath Singh and chief minister N. Biren Singh.
The state will be experiencing another 36 hour total shut down from 5 am on February 11 till 5 pm on February 12, as decided after a day-long discussion on Saturday by various bodies. It will be followed by mass hunger strike from February 13.
Chief minister Singh has also announced his opposition to the Bill even though he is heading a BJP government in the state. He said he wanted changes in the Bill so that people of Manipur were protected.
As the Tripuris became minorities in Tripura and Manipuris becoming minority in the 2011 census due to heavy influx from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar, the region has been facing waves of illegal immigrants in the porous borders, those taking part in the protests today said.
They further said the Prime Minister was not aware of the sensitive geo-political structure of the region and the argument that the state’s assent was required to grant citizenship was an unacceptable argument as people will be coming to Manipur and the neighbouring states after getting papers from other states.
The maximum numbers of people coming on daily basis were mostly from Nepal and Bangladesh and were found to have documents procured from other parts of the country they said.
Pic courtesy ET
