The Manipur International Youth Forum (MIYC) on Friday extolled newly elected Manipur MP, Professor Angomcha Bimol Akoijam for his fiery speech at the Parliament that contested the whole project of Indian National, reflecting the malfunctioning the state’s ownership and the fallen federalism in the Indian polity, particularly in the entire northeast.
Bimol Akoijam’s outcry at the parliament is the upsurge of the long colonial agony inflicted towards the people of Northeast and Manipur, stated a release issued by MIYC coordinator, MC Meetei. No MP of Manipur has ever spoken like him in the parliament so far, it claimed.
His speech elucidated the emulation of Delhi by the leaders ever since the day Manipur was annexed to the then Indian Dominion on October 15, 1949 and the prolonged effect that ails Manipur due to the alleged continuation of colonial attitude into the post-colonial era towards Northeast India and Manipur in particular or in other words ‘otherness of India’, it stated.
He also pointed out the exclusion of the history of Northeast in the Indian textbooks and treatment of the northeast people as the ‘otherness’, it noted. It added that his concluding remarks showed his bravery, challenging he would keep silent the moment the prime minister of India would utter a word about Manipur and address the sufferings of the more than 60,000 displaced people including women, widows and children languishing in the makeshift relief camps.
It further decried Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in the Rajya Sabha, which allegedly failed to mention about the ethnic cleansing of the Meiteis, resettlement of the internally displaced people, the partisan role of the Indian armed forces, burning down of religious sites and about the initiation of the reconciliation process among the warring communities.
The voice that Bimol raised in the Indian parliament goes beyond party lines and carries a voice of the unheard on his shoulders encompassing the entire northeast region and Manipur, it maintained. It urged the Indian National Congress (INC) not to baffle their alleged political incompetence of the past with the rise of Bimol as an iconic figure of northeast India and Manipur as seen in the overwhelming social media posts across India.
The first and foremost duty of the members of parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) from Manipur should be to resist the imposition of the Article 3 of the Constitution of Indian upon Manipur in the shadow of the fear of the people of Manipur in breaking away Manipur into parts, disrupting the peaceful co-existence of the Manipur People and the complete eradication of the Manipur Civilization by the administering power of India, MIYC stated.
It pointed out that continuous attack on Meiteis and other communities allegedly by Kuki armed groups occurs intensively in the heavily militarized areas, particularly the places where the Indian armed forces are stationed. Appointing Kuldiep Singh as the security advisor to resolve the conflict has turned out to be another hurdle on the lives of the indigenous Mattis with a series of human rights violations inflicted upon the struggling women and students, it alleged.
It further went on to say that it has allegedly become a habit to form a central centric state government on the soil of Manipur without any concern for the people of Manipur. It asserted that such a top-down approach made no worth in the electoral politics of Manipur as the state remains latent even though it has achieved statehood in the year 1972.
It exuded belief that Bimol would never undermine the sentiments of the people and the ‘Idea of Manipur’ that has been deliberately made to collapse implicitly after the well-engineered Kuki Aggression on Manipur since May 3, 2023. His voice represents redemption of the State’s authority and fulfilling the people’s desire for rebuilding the Idea of Manipur that has been fractured for a long time and the building of a unified force in India’s northeast.
