Zomi Council knocks PMO's door; Reaffirms Separate Administration demand for Zo ethnic tribes

The Zomi Council Steering Committee (ZCSC) has written a memorandum to the Prime Minister of India today expressing its concern at the continuous attempts made by numerous Meitei civil society organizations as well as the majoritarian Manipur Government to suit Meitei communal interests while conveniently ignoring the historical facts.

The letter mentioned the representation submitted earlier by the Ojha Sanajaoba Memorial Trust (OSMT) by explaining how the Memorial Trust's demand for the insertion of protective clause under Article 3 and amendment of Article 371C (1) & (2) of the Indian Constitution was myopic and communal, which portrayed the exclusive mindset of the Meitei community at large.

The ZCSC memorandum described how the OSMT's representation was a direct challenge to the very spirit and propriety of the Constitution of India and an attempt to further their selfish interest and also undermine the clear intent of the legislature.

While stating that the tribal people in general and the Zo people in particular were never integrated completely with Manipur and Meitei society at any historical point in time, the ZCSC highlighted the independent existence of the Meitei Maharaja and the Zo King/Ukpipa upto British colonial times by citing the Treaty of Sanjenthong and the Treaty of Kaparang signed between Zo Ukpipa Sumkam and Maharaja Chandrakirti in 1873, where dealings between them happened as equal partners.

The memorandum also included how a series of treaties were executed and boundary commissions formed to curve out large chunks of hill lands from the hitherto independent Burma (1826), Naga Hills (1842), Chin Hills (1894) and Lushai Hills (1901) to be administered by the British Political Agent stationed at Imphal all done for the sake of administrative convenience - which eventually led to the formation of present-day
Manipur.

The ZCSC also wrote how it felt that the Meitei community and the State Government have an obligation to admit their failure to create an emotional integration with the hill tribes within 76 years of togetherness under the State of Manipur.

Stating its conviction that emotional integration must precede territorial integration, the ZCSC memorandum also mentioned that forceful attempts to maintain geographical integration is meaningless and can only spell unending trouble as is widely evident in present-day Manipur.

The memorandum to the Prime Minister also highlighted on the apparent ambiguous position of the Meitei community on national integration as the radical Meiteis, and increasingly the Meitei community at large as well, continues to challenge the Merger Agreement, 1949. It also described how the Manipur (Hill Areas) District Councils Act, 1971 and Article 371C of the Constitution meant for the tribal areas of Manipur were time-tested toothless provisions manipulated time and again by the majoritarian Manipur Government to suit the Meitei community's vested interests.

Having a firm view that a Separate Administration within the Indian Union is inevitable in view of the total separation - emotional, social, physical, and geographical - already starkly exhibited between the minority Zo ethnic tribes and the majority Meitei community, the ZCSC appealed the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, for the hastening of the Political Talks with the United Peoples' Front and the Kuki National Organization for a sustainable solution for the Zo people in the form of Union Territory with Legislature before the Meitei community's plan to "completely annihilate the Zo people from Manipur" becomes a reality.