Last Updated on August 14, 2023 7: 54pm
IMPHAL: The United Naga Council (UNC) has slammed the eight (8) Naga MLAs from Manipur for being a part of the 40-member delegation of legislators from the state, who submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that listed down their six demands.
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Lambasting the eight Naga MLAs from Manipur, the UNC termed the act of the legislators of being part of the 40-MLA delegation that submitted the memorandum as an “untimely move”.
“The United Naga Council is devastated at the untimely move of the eight Naga legislators submitting representation to the Prime Minister of India along with 32 others simultaneously on the day of the Naga people’s rally organised in the Naga hill districts of Manipur, negating the collective sentiment of the Naga people,” the UNC said in its statement.
It added: “Whilst the Nagas are all out reiterating for an inclusive, acceptable and honourable solution to the Indo-Naga political issue, submitting representation with some contradictory demands to the PM is highly uncalled for and therefore, the UNC as the apex body representing 20 Naga tribes of Manipur feels necessitated to place on record that the Naga legislators who have appended their signatures do not carry the collective aspiration and sentiments of the Nagas and hence disown their representation.”
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It may be mentioned here that as many as eight MLAs from Manipur – belonging to the Naga community in the state – have raised voice against the “separate administration” demand of the 10 Kuki-Zo legislators from the state.
Out of the eight Naga MLAs from Manipur, one is an independent legislator, while the others belong to the NPF and NPP – allies of the ruling BJP.
It may be mentioned here that these eight Naga MLAs from Manipur, had also signed a memorandum, which was submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 08.
The eight Naga MLAs are among the 40 legislators from Manipur, who submitted the memorandum to PM Modi.
In the memorandum to the Prime Minister, the 40 MLAs, comprising mainly of Meitei legislators, termed the “separate administration” demand of the Kuki community as “absolutely unacceptable”.
“A ‘separate administration’ as demanded by the ITLF/Kukis is absolutely unacceptable under any circumstances,” the memorandum read.
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The memorandum also seeks complete withdrawal of the Assam Rifles troopers from Manipur.
“…the Assam Rifles (9, 22 and 37) need to be transferred from their present location of deployment while trustworthy central forces along with state security can replace them to sanitise and neutralise the whole area of any and all threats to pea, security and stability,” the memorandum said.
It also calls for withdrawal of suspension of operations (SoO) agreement “with all those who have violated the ground rules at the earliest”.
The 40 Manipur MLAs also claimed that “there has been large scale foreign infiltration with arms and ammunition into the state”.
Among other demands made by the 40 Manipur MLAs are: implementation of NRC, strengthening of autonomous district councils (ADCs) and initiation of peace talks.