Imphal: Manipur has been reduced to a dumping ground for refugees decades ago,” says former Manipur Chief Minister and Manipur unit BJP leader N Biren Singh in his X post on Wednesday.
As early as the late 1960s and early 70s, documents reveal the presence of over 1,500 families who had crossed over and were provided assistance for rehabilitation in Manipur. This wasn’t some isolated event.
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There were multiple letters from MPs, government departments, and refugee associations, all pointing to the presence of a large number of refugees in Manipur, N Biren Singh writes.
Official records show that even before Manipur became a full-fledged state, thousands of refugees settled in Manipur with the knowledge of the authorities at the time.
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Manipur kingdom merged with the Indian Union in 1949 as Part C status and got statehood status in 1972.
One such letter, written by Paokai Haokip, then Member of Parliament from Manipur, addressed to K.C. Pant, Minister of State for Home Affairs, explicitly acknowledged the presence of over 1,500 refugee families who had already settled in Manipur by 1967.
His correspondence is just one among several that confirm how deeply rooted and long-standing this issue is.
Amid all the political noise and distractions that often cloud our public discourse, the Indigenous people of Manipur must not lose sight of the core issue, one that has been quietly shaping Manipur’s reality for decades, Singh posted on his X.
It’s hard not to feel a deep sense of frustration when we look back at what has unfolded in Manipur over the decades.
What’s even more disheartening is the backlash that anyone who dares to raise these legitimate concerns faces.
The moment someone mentions the issue, others quickly throw labels around. Ironically, Singh writes, had we stayed silent, people might have seen us as agreeable or unproblematic.
Singh asserted that no one has ever fully addressed the questions about what happened to those families, how the authorities integrated them, and how many generations have grown since then in the public domain.
Instead, the issue has remained largely unspoken, even as the demographic structure of the state evolved quietly over the years.
It’s important to ask whether there were legal mechanisms in place to ensure these individuals remained in refugee status.
Were they eventually granted full rights?, Were they added to the electoral rolls?, Were the extended benefits meant for indigenous communities? These’re not small matters, Singh stated adding that they touch the core of our identity, our social balance, and the direction we’re heading in as a society.
Singh concluded that from his experiences in active politics and high office, he understands the weight it carries as a representative of the people.