GUWAHATI: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s September 13 visit to Manipur, the state government urged the Naga organisation, United Naga Council (UNC), to withdraw its “trade embargo” enforced in all Naga areas since Monday midnight.
The UNC, Manipur’s apex Naga organisation, resorted to this action in protest against the fencing of the India-Myanmar border and the scrapping of the free movement regime (FMR).
In a letter addressed to UNC president Ng Lorho, Chief Secretary Dr Puneet Kumar Goel said the Ministry of Home Affairs had been engaging with the UNC on the issue of fencing of the international border between India and Myanmar in Naga-inhabited areas, and the state government also received the UNC’s memoranda and representations on the subject.
“In this connection, it is to inform that the Central Government noted the concerns raised by UNC and other stakeholders. Accordingly, the Central Government has been holding and will continue to hold dialogue with the UNC and other stakeholders for prior consultation before fencing works are taken up. The next tripartite meeting with UNC will be held on a mutually convenient date and venue,” the letter to Lorho read.
Goel requested the UNC to withdraw any form of agitation in this regard in the larger public interest.
Manipur’s Naga organisations are demanding the reinstatement of FMR and an immediate halt to the border fencing work. They said their traditional boundary extends up to the river Chindwin in Myanmar.
Nagas have a sizeable population in that country.
On August 26, talks between an 11-member delegation of three Naga organisations, including UNC, and central government officials held in New Delhi on the twin issues had failed.
In a memorandum submitted to Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla, the UNC had stated that Nagas living across the border shared all ties with the Nagas on this side of the border in terms of socio-economic, cultural, religious, land matters etc.
“These bonds predate the colonial demarcation of boundaries and are integral to our identity, traditions, and way of life. As such, abrupt abrogation of FMR and construction of physical border fencing…have adversely impacted and disrupted the natural flow of community and familial interdependent relationship…” the memorandum said.
The FMR was signed between India and Myanmar in 2018 as part of the Centre’s Act East policy, promoting cross-border movement up to 16 km without travel documents.
The objectives were to encourage people-to-people contact and boost the Northeast’s economy. The FMR was scrapped during the ethnic violence in Manipur.