DIMAPUR, AUGUST 13 (MExN): The Kuki Inpi Manipur has taken exception over the statement made by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the origin of the present conflict was by Kuki refugees from Myanmar during the parliament monsoon session on August 9 and has asked him to furnish evidence.
In a press statement, the Kuki Inpi said the remark is extremely unfortunate and dismaying as it is largely speculative with no valid proof or evidence. It said the present carnage in Manipur has no link whatsoever with the much-hyped ‘influx’ of Kukis into Manipur or Mizoram.
Echoing N. Biren Singh’s prejudicial statements, false allegations and concocted narratives in the temple of democracy by a minister as high as the caliber of Union Home Minister without objective analysis/empirical evidence is “abhorrent, nonsensical and disastrous,” it stated.
The Kuki Inpi alleged that the development in Myanmar has a very serious ramification here in Manipur – that, the secessionist Valley Based Insurgent Groups (VBIGs) who otherwise were given refuge in Myanmar by the military junta could no longer enjoy protection from the junta due to the intensified pro-democracy uprising.
The bases of these anti-national elements, who are involved in numerous subversive and antinational activities in Manipur/India from the soil of Myanmar, became vulnerable and unsafe following the disturbances in Myanmar. As such, the Biren Singh Government in Manipur received immense pressure from the VBIGs operating in Myanmar, seeking protection.
In his attempt to accommodate the VBIGs, Biren Singh misled and misinformed the Centre about the Kukis. Biren Singh and VBIGs’ frontal organisations such as COCOMI’s fabricated charges against the Kukis and even launched an ethnic cleansing campaign against them so as to expand and consolidate Meiteis’ influence in every part of Manipur, particularly in Kuki areas, it alleged.
The Kuki Inpi also stated that it’s not only deeply shocking but also gravely alarming to project the Kukis in a bad, damaging light who had enormous contributions to India’s Freedom Struggle (1942-45) by joining the Indian National Army under the leadership of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose besides fighting against the British colonialists in the Anglo-Kuki War (1917-1919) for three consecutive years.
The Kuki Inpi said it is prudent on the part of the Union Home Minister to rise above party politics/political vendetta, thereby clarify his parliament’s speech with evidence, if any, and disown his statement by tendering apology to the aggrieved Kukis in case he failed to produce concrete evidence on the “origin of the present conflict vis-a-vis Kuki refugees from Myanmar.”
