Imphal: Coalition of Indigenous Rights Campaign (CIRCA) on Saturday celebrated “75th Manipur Ningtam Numit” (75th Manipur Independence day) at Keibi Mana Ching, Imphal East district.
The celebration started by hoisting Manipur flag by president of CIRCA, Thokchom Somorendro; vice-president, Longjam Ratan; joint secretary W. Luwangleima; president of WASEDEV, RK Tharaksana; and president of Irabot Memorial Trust, L Gunindro and others.
Various civil society organisations and students’ bodies attended the observation.
Somorendro said the day is an important day for Manipur that has been celebrating Manipur’s Independence against the colonial rule. After the day of independence, Manipur state constitution Act, 1947 was passed and under the Act election was conducted. However, in 1949 king of Manipur, Maharaja Bodhachandra was forced to sign to merge under India government. After the signing of agreement with India government on September 21, 1949 the political status of Manipur was lost, he added.
Before the British rule leaves India, an agreement was signed on August 11, 1947 between India government and Manipur government mentioning that under ‘Instrument of Defence’ apart from communication, external affairs other subject including internal sovereignty will be remained in the hand of Manipur government however the central government has so far failed to honour the agreement, he added.
With the sudden change in political status of 1947-49, the issues of Manipur gave birth. After Manipur was merged into Indian Union the issues of increasing of non-locals, weakening of indigenous political status, creating divide and rule police among the ethnic communities and violation of human rights started, he said.
According to the agreement signed between Manipur and India government under ‘Instrument of Accession’ on August 11, 1949, Manipur need to enjoy the political autonomy. CIRCA has been demanding to re-adopt the political status of Manipur before pre-merger agreement, Somorendro, said.
+ There are no comments
Add yours