NEW DELHI: Prof. A. Bimol Akoijam, Member of Parliament from Inner Manipur, addressed the media at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office at 24 Akbar Road, New Delhi, today, and raised concerns over recent developments related to the census process in Manipur.
Addressing reporters at the press briefing, Prof. Akoijam said the developments surrounding the census process in the state were “disturbing” and warranted attention.
“It is regarding certain developments. You must have seen them in newspapers or elsewhere. Since you are all from the media, you are aware of them. There have been some disturbing developments in the state regarding the census process,” Prof. Akoijam said.
“People have been demanding that census process in Manipur should be deferred. In fact, across party lines, across communities and civil society groups, many people have been demanding this for months. If you recollect, I have raised this issue on the floor of the house in March of this year and had also then written to the Union Home Minister requesting him to defer the census process, but unfortunately, the government has gone ahead with this and there are a lot of dissatisfaction among people and in fact, there was two-day shut down in the state till yesterday and agitation all around, which is certainly avoidable, have the government been a little considerate and realise the situation there, they should have deferred the census process,” he said.
“There are reasons why we have been demanding the deferment of census in the state. I just give you some of the concrete examples of that. The first one is, you know that the law-and-order situation in the state hasn’t changed. There are thousands of people still homeless- 60 thousand roughly and majority of the mass is still living in relief camps and more than 10 thousand houses were destroyed, and villages have been wiped out during this crisis that started on 3rd May, 2023. The sphere of that conflict has now spread to hitherto district like Ukhrul, Kamjong, Noney district Tamenglong, Senapati and so on, because the conflict has also engulfed more communities now in these areas that I have just mentioned,”Prof. Akoijam said.
“So, the law-and-order situation is still bad. People have not been able to go back to their homes. In fact, strange, and it seems unconstitutional and illegal manner, the government is dividing people and stopping them from entering each other’s areas and so on. And It was just unthinkable and I have been saying this, like if you go to Rwanda and you will separate the warring groups- the Hutus and Tutsis, that’s fine, but India you can’t afford to do that because you are there to enforce the constitution. Thereby, meaning that people should have access to hospitals, airports, highways, and their homes. You can’t stop them, because you can’t say that this hospital is in so and so community area, you can’t go there. Airport is in ‘x’, ‘y’ community, therefore, the ‘z’ community can’t go there. You can’t do that in India. But unfortunately, strange as it seems the government has been doing that for the last 3 years.” he added.
“And as I have just said that more than 10,000 houses were destroyed and villages has been wiped out during this crisis and you are trying to do a house listing operation. How is it possible? And in this kind of law-and-order situation, where the armed people are going around. Till yesterday also, you must have heard- houses have been burnt down, people have been killed in this new sphere of conflict and violence have started since February this year and it is still continuing.” Prof. Akoijam said.
“You have heard about six Liangmai men, who were abducted and slaughtered; and they were cut into pieces and those pieces are still there in the morgue, and people have been traumatized by this, the lawlessness is still prevailing and the houses have been destroyed and villages wiped out and you started census process, why?” Prof. Akoijam said.
“Can you get an accurate mapping of the houses and population in this kind of a situation? We have instances before also. We are not asking for the census to stop. We are asking for deferment of census, and this is not the first time that we have experienced such thing. In 1981, it was not conducted in Assam. So, given this Manipur situation, how is that… government of India has decided to go ahead to do with this census process and this house listing operation that they have begun.” he added.
“Just I am repeating again this… we have to repeat this again and again. You are doing house listing operation; the villages have been completely wiped out and flattened. There are no houses. Thousands of people, who were residing on those villages are in relief camps now, and you are doing house numbering and listing exercise. How is it possible? That’s inflicting injustice and humiliation on these people, who have already suffered enough in these 3 years”,Prof. Akoijam said.
“So, that is the very irrational way in which the government has gone ahead to do this exercise of census. Despite the fact, across party lines, across civil society groups and communities’ people have demanded that this census should be deferred. Why is the government of India going ahead with that?,” he added.
“And the other concern is also that we have this unresolved census issues since 2001, and 2011 census. It has been brought to the notice of the court as well, the highest court in this country. I will just read out some of these earlier cases involving in 2001, there was an unnatural growth such as… 168.78; 143 decadal increases, it is unthinkable. This kind of things have been brought out and strange it seems, when the court ask to recount at least among this 9 of them is there, and 3, we are asked to recount, when people had gone there, the population refuse, why? This has been going on and independent scholars have said, non-Manipuris; Independent scholars working in universities in Bangalore and IIT have done studies… non-Manipuri scholars and they said- this abnormal growth in population in 2001 or 2011 census in Manipur cannot be explained through normal demogrphic factors. This is a statement made by independent scholars. You can refer some of these studies conducted by… one is by Ankush Aggarwal and Vikas Kumar,” Prof. Akoijam said..
“One is from Azim Premji University and one is from IIT and they have published these articles in Economic and political weekly and they have analysed this, and they have concluded that conventional demographic factors cannot explain the abnormal population growth rates in this part of Manipur. And they conclude that these abnormalities in the head count are instead associated with the competition for seats in the assembly,” he said.
“They are trying to inflate these numbers so that in the delimitation process, they get more seats. And this has been an unresolved issue. So, we have this unresolved issue. This is one of the facts that I have mentioned in my letter to the Home Minister in March that until-unless you resolve these unresolved issues of census, judiciously address these things, concerns, you should not also go ahead with this census data. The people are inflating this data and उसके ऊपर you have this law-and-order situation, where you can’t have an accurate proper census process.” Prof. Akoijam said.
“And the third concern is increasingly over the years, we have a concern of illegal immigrants in Manipur, and I can give you some examples. Over the years, if you compare the unsettling situation in Burma, now Myanmar and you track the… for example the Chin state in Burma neighbouring us and the population growth of Manipur, you will say that increase in population is far higher in Manipur than neighbouring Chin state in Burma. In fact, the last report suggested that there was a drastic decline in Chin state’s population. How is it possible? Which used to stand around say- earlier, there had something like 4.79 lakhs, in the latest it is 3.73. It has reduced.” he said.
“If you check it from 1973 record, if you check this 2014 and now you have 2024, there is a reduction in the population in Chin state and Ulta in Manipur, there is a drastic increase in the population. So, the influx of illegal immigrants in the state has been a concern, that’s why people have been demanding that we should have a judicious process of distinguishing these illegal immigrants and foreigners before we do head count. So, all these factors… if I have to repeat again. There are 3-4 factors that I have shared with you.” Prof. Akoijam said.
“One, it is the prevailing law-and-order situations, where villages have been wiped out, ten thousand houses have been destroyed and people are still languishing in thousands in relief camps and you are trying to do a house listing exercise. This is completely irrational, and there are people… there is no free movement from one area to the other, state is dividing it. And how do you expect in this ongoing bloodshed and violence that continues till today. How is it possible for you to do census process in this kind of law-and-order situation?” he added.
“The other is as I said earlier, there are unresolved issues of census. There is unnatural growth of 168 per cent decadal growth, which is unheard in this country and that has been an issue and then you have the reason for illegal immigrants and you can see that this has been a concern.” Prof. Akoijam said.
“In fact, these illegal immigrants, there was an incident in 2023, they have found out data, the government has tried to monitor and biometrics of this influx and they discover that they were settling among the villagers and they were asked to shift to a designated camp, they refused, there was a violence.” he said.
“So, this fear of absorbing illegal immigrants in the local population and this unnatural growth of, decadal growth rate of 170-190, unthinkable. This is not about Manipuris. I have quoted from independent scholars from outside the state, who have done this.” Prof. Akoijam said.
“So, these concerns of law-and-order and IDPs and then these illegal immigrants that’s why people said- let’s do something like a judicious process- NRC and Foreigner tribunals. Let’s distinguish these illegal immigrants and foreigners first and restore the law-and-order, make it sure that these IDPs go back to their own homes.”Prof. Akoijam said.
“We have postponed and deferred census in many other instances, in Kashmir, in Assam during COVID. So, what is wrong in asking for us to the government to defer. So, this is unfortunate. They don’t listen. They just started and then people are protesting and unnecessarily, this violence was invited, and there is a disruption in day-to-day life again, because of this reckless and insensitive behavior of the government of India.” he added.
“On the other hand, they are playing with provoking people on NRC without even properly preparing them. All these times they have not prepared basic documents to do that. The required amendments they haven’t done anything; they just camouflage and misled the people by saying that oh! We have written letters; we have done this. And now, recently the people have discovered that unlike Assam, where the basic documents were prepared by the state and the parameters and the reasoning and the rational for this and what would be our legacy data? Everything was prepared by the Assam government before they go ahead with that. In Manipur this BJP government did not even prepare that. Despite, they have been talking about NRC! NRC! And they will not even bother and they make it sure that these questions are not asked against them for all these 6-7 years by distracting people. So, they haven’t done the substantive work on this, it is very unfortunate.”Prof. Akoijam said.
“So, our party had done a press conference yesterday with our PCC and former Chief Minister Shri Ibobi, party leaders and all held press conference yesterday in Imphal. We are supposed to do this yesterday itself here in Delhi, but we had CWC meeting and that’s why, we are holding this press conference. And the letter that I have written… I have again written to the Home Minister, day before yesterday. Yesterday, I have written the letter to him again asking for immediate stopping of this census process and deferment.” he added.
“And if you do it without proper counting, you are setting up for deepening of the crisis and conflict in the state, because the kind of anomalies that will come up will have a far-reaching implication for the state. So, it will be very unsettling for the state. So, I request the government of India to immediately stop their census process and ensure that the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) were made to return to their homes and law-and-order is established.” Prof. Akoijam said.
“These armed groups who are loitering around in destruction and killing still going on, that must be stopped so that proper census can be conducted and the unresolved issues of the earlier census must be looked into afresh with genuine and a judicious process- NRC and other foreigners’ tribunals must be instituted in order to delineate, who is a citizen, and who is not, in the state of Manipur.” he added.
When National Political Mirror’s Editor, Sanjeeb Kumar Sahoo, asked Prof. A. Bimol Akoijam, “You just mentioned the issue of illegal immigration in Manipur. Who is responsible for the illegal immigration issue in Manipur—the previous government or the current government?” Prof. Akoijam said,It is not about previous government or the current government. The fact is that… you need to know since independence, unfortunately, for us Pakistan was not very stable… so this Myanmar (Burma).
So, and we are not proper traditionally in South Asia. We don’t have that European model of firm border. So, it’s a porous border, so people used to come. So, even for the western sector it took time till 1965. So, this is one factor. So, instead of turning to the government my answer would be that this has been going on because of this… the government has not taken appropriate measures at one level, cutting across party lines has been going on.
So, and the second one is, as far as real intention that I was saying towards the end. BJP government has been shouting NRC since 2023. They have not done their homework, even the legacy data of the NRC 1951 documents, or the 1948 electoral list. We are not sure whether they have it. They have not prepared, what are the criteria or the consultative process, they don’t do. Now, they are running to Delhi. Yesterday, I heard that some of their MLAs had gone to Delhi now, why? Why didn’t they write?
On the other hand, they have issued… and government officers have been trained now for the census process. So, there is the dishonesty in that, but I must also tell you in terms of the government’s performance. This is the government of India’s record. In 2004 to 2014, UPA government 1 and 2, more than 82,000 illegal immigrants were deported back to their countries including around 26,000 from Bangladesh… during the UPA government from 2004 to 2014.
And from 2014 to 2024, during this NDA government that is less than 5,000 illegal immigrants. कहता रहता है- एनआरसी करूंगा, इल्लीगल ये करूँगा, पर हकीकत में वो किया ही नहीं उसने the numbers speaks for itself. Less than 5,000 illegal immigrants were deported during the NDA government from 2014 to 2024. होम मिनिस्ट्री का खुद का डेटा है। तो कांग्रेस के टाइम में, यूपीए की government के टाइम में 2004 से 2014 तक के बीच में 80 हजार से ज्यादा illegal immigrants were deported by the government.
So, in fact, you should do this government. So, I think the time is not to talk about this thing. I think the government of Manipur must be honest enough just as Assam government has done it. They should prepare all the required documents right now. They have been talking for 7 years, many of these papers are not in the public domain still. They have not amended citizenship act 1955. Do you know how they have been amending ‘x’ after ‘x’ even without discussing in the house, because they have this majority.
If they wanted to do an amendment to insert a require a cut of year for Manipur and process like the way they have done from Assam. In Citizenship Act 1959, they have inserted 6 and 6(A). Similarly, they should have done for Manipur. And similarly, citizenship rule 2003, where they have 4A, similar thing should have been inserted for Manipur. They should have also prepared and then find it out where the legacy data are- whether it is 1948 electoral list or 1951 NRC? There are controversies around this, we have no data. And reason, deadline with Assam government has prepared white paper on this issue before they approach the court, we don’t have anything of that kind, but, मुँह में कहता रहता है एनआरसी करूंगा, इल्लीगल इमीग्रेंट्स करूंगा… काम तो किया ही नहीं उसने। I think that’s the fundamental issue that we face, but all set and done. Our insistence is that the census must be immediately stopped, until the time, we address all these concerns that I have raised in front of you.
This is the demand from the people of the state. Cutting across community, cutting across party lines, I think, this should be clear by the government of India. This is not a partisan agenda. This is nonpartisan agenda for the state of Manipur that we must delineate citizens and illegal immigrants, that process must start, and then ensure that law-and-order is restored and IDPs are allowed to return homes, only then you do it. Delimitation exercise, all of this must be deferred for the time being till these issues have been addressed by the government of the state, that’s our position.
