GUWAHATI: A Bill to “protect the identity of indigenous people” of Manipur from the influx of outsiders passed by the State Assembly recently has set a district bordering Assam on fire, leading to the indefinite imposition of Section 144 CrPC in Jiribam on Saturday.
As per the Manipur People’s Protection Bill, 2018, people, who have been living in the State from 1951 onwards, will be viewed as locals. There has been a steady migration of people, mostly Bengali Muslims and Hindus from Assam’s Barak Valley, to Manipur, particularly Jiribam district, since Independence. These people are now enraged as they wonder how the Manipur Government fixed 1951 as the cut-off year to say who is a local and who is not, when the State attained statehood in 1972.
Violence erupted, leaving 10 people, including three police personnel injured, after the Assembly passed the Bill three days ago.
Once the Bill gets the Governor’s nod and becomes an Act, “outsiders”, who came to the State after 1951, will be viewed as “foreigners”. Also, the Bill states that such people will have no voting rights or land rights.
Significantly, the Bill has come just days ahead of the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens in Assam to exclude foreigners illegally staying in the State.
The All-Jiribam United Minority People’s Joint Action Committee (JAC), which has been very critical of the Bill, demanded that the cut-off year be made 1972. It claimed that no proper documents were issued to the migrants in Jiribam by the government in 1951.
Jiribam Superintendent of Police M Mubi Singh, who was one of the people injured when the protestors clashed with the police on Friday said, “Hundreds of protestors, which included both Bengali Hindus and Muslims, took out a rally on Friday. Even as we were advising them to take the issue up with the government, they suddenly started pelting stones at us. My right hand was injured and I was briefly hospitalised. The officer-in-charge of the local police station was also beaten up by the protestors. A policewoman was also injured.”
He said the situation on Saturday was tense but under control. “I learnt that they were mobilising in the interiors of the district. If they try to be violent again, there will be serious consequences,” he warned.