Manipur: Chief minister faces flak for “distorting” history even as govt employees’ strike demanding fulfilment of BJP’s poll promises continues.
Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh is facing severe public criticism for his speech at a Gujarat government sponsored event early this week, with a powerful students’ body even demanding the BJP leader’s resignation for “distorting” the state’s history, else it would resort to “intense agitation”.
On March 28, taking part in the Madhavpur mela, organised to recreate the mythical elopement and wedding of Rukmini and Lord Krishna in that village near Porbandar in Gujarat, the state chief minister said, “During the time of Lord Krishna, there was no separate Arunachal Pradesh or Assam or Manipur. The entire Northeast was one entity. Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland are bordering China, Lord Krishna made them part of India during his time.” Rukmini was presented in the mela as a woman from the Idu Mishmi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh.
Biren’s speech at once evoked huge disapproval in many sections of people in Manipur as it was seen as an attempt to propagate the Hindutva ideology of “distorting” history for myth and undermining the rich history of the state by combining it with that of ancient India.
In a press meet in Imphal on March 29, Manipur Students’ Federation (MSF) took the lead to the growing opposition against the chief minister’s speech by seeking his resignation for “distorting” the history of Manipur. MSF president Ngariyanbam Milan said, “The statement is nothing but total ignorance of the history of Manipur on the part of N. Biren. The statement was akin to completely distorting the history of Manipur and selling off the entire Manipuri nation in his pursuit to obtain benefits from the government of India.”
Manipur CM N. Biren seen sitting next to Kiren Rijiju at the mela. Credit: Kiren Rijiju/Twitter
Accusing him of linking the history of Manipur with Hindutva, he said, “N. Biren must come out with a clarification. If he fails to do so, MSF and the people of Manipur would launch intense agitation.”
Binalakhsmi Nepram, a well-known social activist from the state, said on Twitter on March 30, “People’s anger/ protests grows; chief minister (of) Manipur asked to apologise to people at Kangla (fort), a historical site where kings of Manipur have been coronated for over thousands of years, for stating lies at Madhavpur Mela.”
Dear PM @narendramodi People of Northeast STRONGLY condemn DISTORTION history/wrong portrayal of NE women at Madhavpur Mela organised by Ministry Culture where ministers tweeted about”Heroic kidnapping”of Idu Mishmi woman by Lord Krishna & bizarre LIES told in speeches of NE CMs pic.twitter.com/UZL40kT2Rg
— Binalakshmi Nepram (@BinaNepram) March 28, 2018
Opposition parties have also joined in to demand an apology from the chief minister in this regard. Erendro Leichombam of Peoples’ Resurgence and Justice Alliance wrote on social media, “CM N. Biren Singh should apologise to the people of Manipur. Everyone should be free to follow a religion of their choice but distorting history is a crime, it’s insulting and humiliating to the peoples of Manipur.”
The state unit of the Congress also demanded a public apology for his speech, besides the Manipur People’s Party.
On March 30, a written clarification signed by his media advisor Irengbam Arun, said, “During the age of Gods, i,e, under the reign of Bhagwan Shri Krishna, a woman named Rukamani from the northeast region (now Arunachal) which borders to China, was married to him and kept a good relationship with north eastern states i,e, Assam, Manipur, Nagalnd, etc.of that time (age of Gods). On the other hand, the opportunity to become familiar with each other was not available as we are politically and socially divided. However, Narendra Modi took birth took birth at Gujarat to become the prime Minister and he further strengthened the integrity of a united India and proved to the world that the northeast (region) is a part of India which it has strong ties with and now more attention is being given for its development.”
The clarification was issued soon after an MSF delegation met the chief minister.
Meanwhile, the “indefinite” strike of the Manipur government employees, demanding salaries as per the Seventh pay Commission recommendations, entered its ninth day on March 31. Implementation of the pay Commission recommendation was a promise made to the state government employees by the BJP in its “Vision Document”, issued in the run-up to the 2017 elections.
Led by the joint administrative committee (JAC) of All Manipur Trade Union Council (AMTUC) and the All Manipur Government Employees Organisation (AMGEO), the employees have been carrying out the strike since March 22.
On March 21, JAC secretary general Laitonjam Biken told reporters in Imphal that the committee had submitted a 22-point charter of demands to the state government and had meetings with the chief minister on the issues four times besides meeting the state finance minister, the chief secretary and the fitment committee, which had prepared a report for the government. The chief secretary reportedly told the employees’ committee that though the fitment committee had calculated the sum required to pay salaries as per the recommendations and had submitted it to the government, it was up to the government now to implement it.
However, speaking at the state assembly recently, finance minister and deputy chief minister Yumnam Joykumar said, “There is no immediate plan to implement the recommendations (as) the pay hike will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 1,500 crores.”
On March 26, the chief minister said his government would engage “a few thousand contractual employees” from March 27 to dispose of the pending work related to the financial year-end.
Meanwhile, a number of employees’ organisations, including the Manipur Government Service Federation, have offered their support to the ongoing strike. Besides, All Manipur Municipality Employees and Workers’ Union has also threatened to go on strike from April 8.
In a meeting held on March 25, the Union, which includes employees of 27 urban local bodies, demanded implementation of a notification issued in November 2017 by the Department of Municipal Administration, Housing and Urban Development (MAHUD), stating that the employees would be paid revised salaries as per the Sixth pay Commission from March 31, 2018, passed a resolution that if the department doesn’t transform the notification into action by April 1, the employees would go on mass casual leave for two days from April 2 and thereafter on a strike from April 8.
The Union has submitted a memorandum to the MAHUD minister in this regard.
Assam: AGP ministers in BJP-led state government meet PM Modi; submit memorandum against Citizenship Bill
In the run-up to the panchayat elections in Assam, the two Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) ministers in the BJP-led state government, Atul Bora and Keshav Mahanta, have met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press on his government not to go ahead with the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, as it “violates the spirit of the Assam Accord”.
The Modi government introduced the Bill in Parliament in July 2016, seeking to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, in order to grant Indian citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis, among others, on the basis of their religion. However, it has been a sore point with most indigenous people of the state as the amendment will violate the Assam Accord.
As per the Accord, those found entering the state “illegally” after the midnight of March 24, 1971, would be declared foreigners and measures be taken by the Centre to deport them to their place of origin.
In the local body polls, slated for this April, BJP ally AGP will most likely go without the alliance. Though BJP president Amit Shah reportedly preferred the BJP to contest the Panchayat polls with the AGP and the Bodo People’s Front (BPF), like it did in the 2016 assembly polls, AGP leader and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta recently told media persons, “Amit Shah is not my leader. Hence, I am not concerned about what he said. Our course of action will be decided by our party workers. Most of our district committees have already expressed reservation against the alliance with the BJP. They want us to fight it alone.”
Atul Bora (centre) at a conclave in New Delhi in 2017. Credit: Atul Bora/Twitter
Minister Atul Bora, also the BJP president, however, said, “It will be decided in a meeting of booth level workers on April 5.”
Sources in the AGP told The Wire, it “prefers to fight the elections alone against the BJP’s wishes as the sincerity of the BJP is increasingly being doubted by many people in the state on the Citizenship Bill, specially after it attempted to name all colleges after (RSS ideologue) Deendayal Upadhay against the wishes of the people. Many are of the opinion that it has not done much to protect the jati mati bheti (‘home and hearth’) it promised to do.”
AGP’s two-member delegation comprising the party’s president and working president met the Prime Minister at his residence in New Delhi on March 27 and submitted a memorandum stating, “Assam has accepted the illegal migrants who entered the state before March 25, 1971. If this bill is passed and the migrants who came after March 24, 1971, are also given citizenship, it will affect the economic and socio-cultural life and the identity of the indigenous people of the state.”
It said, “We urge upon you in the greater interest of the people of Assam not to proceed further in the matter.” The AGP leaders called the Bill “violation of the spirit of the Assam Accord” and therefore, would be opposed by the people of the state. The leaders also urged the Centre to implement all the clauses of the Accord and convene “a tripartite meeting” to review its implementation.
Following opposition by many organisations in Assamto the Bill, including the All Assam Students Union (AASU), it was sent for a detailed study in end 2017 by a joint parliamentary committee led by Rajendra Agarwal, a BJP Lok Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. It has since called a number of organization against and in support of the Bill. Various organisations have yet again been summoned by the JPC in New Delhi in the second week of April.
Among some other issues, the AGP also sought restoration of the special category status to the state and scheduled tribe status to six communities of the state, a poll promise made by the BJP in the run-up to the May 2016 assembly polls.
Arunachal Pradesh: State to introduce tribal languages in school curriculum
The Arunachal Pradesh government has decided to introduce tribal languages in the upper primary classes.
The government’s decision was announced in the assembly by finance minister and deputy chief minister Chowna Mein during his budget speech this past March 12.
Though the state government said in the assembly back in 2009 that it was “contemplating” introducing tribal languages in school curriculum, it has come to fruition now.
The then arts and culture minister Mohesh Chai, in reply to a question raised by then BJP MLA Gabriel Wangsu, also said his department had till then had documented 42 languages spoken by major and minor tribes of the state. In the budget speech, Mein said that the Pema Khandu-led BJP government would resume the documentation of the remaining languages.
The need for preserving the tribal languages and imparting education to children in them has been a long-held desire of the people of the state.
An UNESCO survey reportedly conducted in 2008-2009, which Chai had quoted in his reply, listed 33 of the state’s languages as endangered and four among them critically endangered. In 2013, the People’s Linguistic Survey of India report said Arunachal, with 90 languages, is linguistically the richest in the country.
