Says it will respect RIIN cut-off year
Morung Express News
Dimapur | October 17
Dimapur District Gorkha Indigenous Forum (DDGIF) demanded a public apology from the president of the Gorkha Students Union Dimapur (GSUD) for an alleged “inflammatory message” targeting the former. The DDGIF said that the GSUD president must also resign as president of the organization for bringing the DDGIF into disrepute for no apparent reason.
Condemning the message at a press conference today in Dimapur, DDGIF Co-convenor Dipak Lama said that the message was posted on the official Facebook group of the GSUD on October 1. While the social media post did not mention any name/organisation in particular, Lama held that it was targeted at the DDGIF given its Gorkha (in Nagaland) affiliation and its effort to coordinate with the Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) exercise.
The post/message, as per Lama, had hinted at a “few group of people” misguiding the (Gorkha of Nagaland) public “pertaining to the ILP and RIIN.” Lama alleged that the post painted the DDGIF in a poor light contrary to its efforts to cooperate with the RIIN exercise. He added that the post was removed about a week back.
It said that it wrote to the GSUD the same day the message was posted but it has yet to receive a response from the GSUD President even after the expiry of a 3-day deadline. It further expressed displeasure at what it termed as a “mute spectator” stance of the Dimapur Gorkha Union (DGU) on the issue.
“We demand public apology from the GSUD President and he must resign. At the same time, we question as to why the DGU has taken no action.”
It maintained that the DDGIF was formed to safeguard the Gorkhas of Dimapur district and in support the Joint Committee on Prevention of Illegal Immigration (JCPI). It said that the DDGIF was part of the Nagaland Gorkha Association (NGA) delegation, which attended the consultative meeting of Non Naga Communities convened by the Nagaland State Government on July 20 and also part of the NGA delegation when it met the 3-member Commission on RIIN constituted by the state government.
“Since the first meeting of March 17, 2019, the DDGIF have been tirelessly working to safeguard the Gorkhas of Dimapur pertaining to RIIN and ILP in collaboration with the NGA and the JCPI but it is sad to note that not a single meeting was attended by the DGU and GSUD even after repeated invitations and reminders.”
Meanwhile, the DDGIF said that it will respect any cut-off year, in respect to the RIIN, as prescribed by the Commission or the state government.
Lama said that the history of the Gorkhas in Nagaland goes back to the 1800s and Gorkhas, as Non-Naga Indigenous Inhabitants, have co-existed with the Nagas while also holding positions in the state bureaucracy.
He said that official documents bear testimony to it. He made mention of many Gorkha families choosing to stay in Kohima during the Japanese excursion in World War II and in Dimapur as early as the 1930s.
“Present day Nepali Basti in Dimapur was established in 1930 with around 400 Gorkha families,” he said, while adding that Gorkhas had also settled in quite a few other places in Dimapur. He added that Singrijan village was the result of Gorkha families relocating from the then Nepali Gaon.
As many as 194 Gorkha families in the then districts of Kohima, Mokokchung and Wokha were officially categorized as Non-Naga Indigenous Inhabitants by the Nagaland government in 1974. These were Gorkhas, who were listed in the first E-Roll of Nagaland state published in 1964.
He also reminded that there are descendants of Gorkhas, who were residing in Mon and Tuensang at the time. This lot of Gorkhas was unfortunate to have not been listed in the first and second E-Roll of Nagaland state because electoral census was not conducted in Mon and Tuensang, he said.
As a result, many Gorkhas in the then Mon and Tuensang were left out. In this regard, he said that the RIIN exercise should also consider the plight their descendants.
