On the Sapalming of Kukiland
«This interview with Sapam was arranged at the request of Meiteis who wanted an opportunity to reply to and, perhaps, rebut statements or allegations made in an earlier interview (Tuesday, May 9) by the BJP Kuki MLA Paolienlal Haokip, who is one of the 10 Kuki MLAs who have, since then, demanded a separate state or Union Territory for the Kukis.
«Nishikant Sapam said the demand by the 10 Kuki MLAs (seven of whom are from the BJP and two of who are ministers) for a separate state or UT was a fundamental breach of the oath which they took when they became MLAs, which "oath" commits them to protect the integrity of Manipur Pradesh and that their demand to divide the Manipur Pradesh is a "flagrant breach of that oath."»
False. There is a hierarchy of truths, and of loyalties. "Loyalty" of Manipur Kukis to the Manipur Pradesh is not Absolute. It is subject to the Constitutional Law of India, which certainly permits citizens to demand new states or provinces. Manipur was merged into Assam, after 1947, and agitated to be separated, made a separate province, and now hypocritically pretends that none others can similarly agitate.
It is also subject and subordinated to the International Consensus of Law, such as the "Declaration of Independence" by the "Continental Congress," by which thirteen English colonies in North America declared Independence and later constituted themselves into the United States of America.
«Nishikant Sapam also "emphatically said that Meiteis will never accept the division of Manipur."»
Pretty generous of the Meiteis "not to accept the separation by the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo-Hmar Peoples of their homelands, from the Manipur Pradesh"! The Kukis (and affiliated tribes, the Zomis, Mizos, Hmars, etc.) and their homeland are not the "property" of the Meiteis and their approval or lack of approval, for their separation has not been sought, and is absolutely not needed.
No Kuki has requested the Meiteis for this "largesse;" the Meiteis can stuff their pretensions to be the "owners and proprietors" of the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo-Hmars and of the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo-Hmar homelands, up their "where the sun don't shine."
«Meiteis feel a "very strong sense of being victims of injustice" allegedly because, although they are 53% of the population, they cannot buy land outside the Valley area which is just 10% of the Manipur Pradesh, while the remaining 90% land is open only to the Kukis and Naga tribals, who can also, in addition, buy land in the Imphal Valley.
«The other sentiment that comes through strongly is the belief held by many Meiteis that the percentage share of the Kuki population has increased because of illegal immigration from Myanmar. On two or three occasions in the interview, Sapam says Manipur needs an National Register of Citizens to identify those who are genuine citizens as well as those who are illegal immigrants, and then the latter must be sent back to Myanmar.»
There is no real injustice to the Meiteis, when the true facts are considered.
The Imphal Valley is the homeland of the Meiteis.
The Highlands surrounding the Imphal Valley are the native homelands of the Nagas, and of the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo-Hmar tribes.
The Imphal Valley is the true and only "Manipur."
The Meiteis historically invaded and subjugated these Naga and Zo Peoples, included these non-Meitei peoples, and their homelands unwillingly into a "Greater Manipur."
This is Colonialism.
Only a fool or a hypocrite would suggest that "English colonialism bad, Meitei colonialism good," etc.
In all Colonialisms, lands are distinguished into "Metropoles" or "Mother Countries" on one hand, and Colonies on the other hand. In such an arrangement, citizens of "colonies" are given the "privilege" of freely settling in the "Metropole."
In the case of the Naga and Zo Peoples, they fiercely resisted the Meiteis' invasion, due to which, agreements were established that protected these tribes in their homelands, dating to the time the English Paramountcy over the "Kingdom of Manipur" was established.
Many reasons have been attributed for the present troubles between the Meiteis and the Zo Peoples.
The only real reason however, is that the Meiteis have decided by a sort of "Consensus" amongst themselves, that they are "entitled" as pretentious "owners and proprietors," "overlords," of the Zo Peoples, and of their homelands, entitled to "take for themselves," as Lebensraum, the Zosylvania, the Zo Peoples homelands, to dispossess the Zo Peoples, reduce them to 2nd class citizens in the Zosylvania, the Zo Peoples homelands, and, in reaction to this Criminal Humbug, the Natural Resistance of the Zo Peoples, the natural instinct of every human, to protect it's home.
As part of that Criminal Humbug, is the Pretension of the Meiteis to be "Concerned" about a pretended massive infiltration, illegal immigration, by Zo Peoples from Burma, into the Zosylvania in the Manipur Pradesh.
If anybody needs to be concerned about "illegal immigrants" in the Zosylvania, it is only and solely the Zo Peoples, and nobody else.
It is no business of the Meiteis, none of their business.
As a matter of fact, the Criminal Humbug Pretension of the Meiteis, of allegedly illegal immigrants from Burma flooding into the Zosylvania, is a Figleaf to cover the Naked Criminality of the Meiteis actively Coveting and actively working to steal the Zo Peoples' homelands!
«Another quality that does strikingly emerge from the interview is the depth of and, possibly, the long standing history behind the distrust – perhaps even animosity – that separates the Meiteis from the Kukis. You will sense that it goes back all the way to the 1950s, shortly after Manipur's merger with India, when the Kukis and Meiteis were granted tribal status under the constitution but that was not given to the Meiteis. Till then, Sapam says, the Meiteis, the Kukis and the Nagas were all the same. Now, Sapam elaborates, a difference has been created which has also conferred advantages on the Kukis and disadvantages on the Meiteis.
«As Sapam explained, it's not just land that is a key problem in Manipur but also the fact that Meiteis believe they are losing out on government jobs and that the best are going to the Kukis. The demand for Scheduled Tribe status for the Meiteis is intended to address this as well as the land issue.»
APART FROM THE ADMISSION THAT MEITEIS' "SCHEDULED TRIBE DEMAND" is "about wanting to steal Kuki lands," the rest of Sapam's claims are lies, lies, and blatant lies; the Meiteis know that these are lies but chose to deceive themselves, brainwash themselves that this invented mythology is the "truth," in the hope that everyone else will accept these lies as "Gospel truth"!
When India forcibly annexed the Kingdom of Manipur, and then merged it into the Assam Pradesh, India did not invent anything as for the relative status of the Meiteis, the Zo and the Naga Peoples.
Instead, India took over, and continued the extant policies, including those "enshrined" in the Abortive "Kingdom of Manipur Constitution" that India claims was "illegally attempted" to be established by the last King, Bodhachandra, in the absence of it's pre-approval as "Paramount Power" over the Kingdom of Manipur as set out in the unequal "Standstill Agreement."
India very certainly did not suddenly, and out of the blue, "privilege" the Naga and Zo Peoples over the Meiteis; it continued the written law agreements made between the Kingdom of Manipur and the subjugated Hill Tribes. These "privileges" were "concessions" of internal autonomy for the Hill Tribes designed to sugarcoat their subjugation by the Meiteis.
There has been no real "population explosion" among the Zo Tribes.
As for Burmese Refugees, there are Naga refugees too.
The "real population explosion" in amongst the Meiteis. They have grown in number, and consider themselves "cooped up" in the Imphal Valley, and wish to expand.
They have only two options to expand: the Naga Peoples and their homelands in the north of the Manipur Pradesh, and the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo-Hmars and their homelands in the south of the Manipur Pradesh.
The Meiteis know the Nagas to be a formidable force but regard the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo-Hmars to be comparatively weaker, and (putatively) easy pushovers, to steal their homelands. That is all, plain and simple, everything else is a tissue of lies designed to smokescreen the truth.
WHATEVER ALLEGED GRIEVANCE the Meiteis have, after the May 2023 Pogroms, the Zo Peoples have made a very generous offer to the Meiteis: The Meiteis can keep their native Imphal Valley to be exclusively theirs, the Kukis will not return to the Imphal Valley, the homelands of the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo-Hmar peoples will excusively be for the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo-Hmar peoples, the Meiteis can have for themselves not only their extant General, Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Class etc. statuses and privileges, but also Scheduled Tribe status.
For that, the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo-Hmar homelands must be as a necessary first step, first of all, de rigeur separated from the Manipur Pradesh, and either set up as a separate Territory, or merged with Mizoram.
Once again, for this, the Zo Peoples do not need the consent or approval of the Meiteis.
THE BJP STRONGLY SUPPORTS that states should be smaller in size.
The BJP strongly supported the Partition of Andhra Pradesh into Telegu speaking Telengana and Telegu speaking Rump Andhra Pradesh.
It likewise strongly supported the Partitions of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar to create Uttarakhand, Chattisgarh and Rump Jharkhand.
Given these facts, and give the Total and Irreparable, Irreversible Rupture between the Avaricious and Supremacist Meiteis and the Kuki-Zomi-Mizo-Hmar Peoples, due to the Anti-Christian Anti-Kuki Pogroms orchestrated by Biren Singh and by "Maharaja" Leishemba and their terrorst entities, the Arambai Tenggol, and the Meitei Leepun, the BJP has absolutely no legitimate grounds to oppose the separation of Zosylvania, the Zo Peoples homelands, from the Manipur Pradesh.
Lucio Mascarenhas
(A deliberate pun on Sapam, to "Sapalm," still pronounced Sapam in English, and to rhyme with Napalm.)
