KYKL, NLFT and KCP also jointly call shutdown

IMPHAL | Oct 14

The proscribed NLFT, KCP and KYKL have jointly called for a total shut down in the entire region of Manipur and Tripura from the midnight of October 14 to 6 pm of October 15, as a resistance to the Indian colonial rule “imposed” on October 15, 1949.

This shut down will not cover essential services such as medical, water supply and religious activities.

A joint release signed by chairman, KYKL, N. Oken, president, KCP, Laba Meitie, president, NLFT, D. Yamrok said, the refusal of Tripura Merger Agreement (TMA) and Manipur Merger Agreement (MMA) signed respectively on September 9 and September 21, 1949 have been at the very heart of people’s struggle for freedom and change, which we have witnessed in the last 5/6 decades in Tripura and Manipur.

This is also more than clear that we have consistently invoked the same to politically mobilise the people against Indian occupation and to charge them with the spirit of freedom, it said.

It is a fact that the king of Manipur refused to sign the pre-drafted Manipur Merger agreement being supplied to him by the agents of the dominion of India without consulting the council of ministers in whom the real sovereign power lies, for Manipur, at that time, have had a democratically elected government with a written constitution adopted under the Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947 thereby reducing the king of Manipur to the status of a mere constitutional head of the state, it continued.

If a treaty is concluded by using threats or force, it will be taken as void and null as it has violated the principles of international law enshrined in the charter of the United 2 Nations, it said.  This is what the Article 52 of the Vienna convention on the law of treaties, 1969 precisely puts down, it continued.  Cutting into the Manipur merger Agreement, 1949 through the lens of Vienna convention, one will never find a reason not to say MMA, 1949 invalid, it added.

Here what can be observed crystal clear are the plain facts that all they did were nothing but making things invisible whichever they considered obstacle to their elephantine venture of constructing India, where the mainland will imprison the periphery, particularly the people of WESEA, it continued.

What is more, the Manipur merger agreement through which India has been riding roughshod over us for more than 6 decades had never been subject to a plebiscite under the supervision of a neutral party like the United Nation, which has been a universally democratic norms to ascertain whether the people in a particular territory want to remain 3 independent or join another country, it said.

On the same page, the regent queen Kanchan Prava was taken for a ride by the newly born fascist India to sign the Tripura Merger Agreement in the name of protecting her state on September 9, 1949 to come into effect from October 15, 1949, the same day on which Manipur’s administration was handed over to India, it continued.

The independent-minded people of Tripura, however, stood against the merger, it said adding tens of thousands Borok people took to the street protesting the perfidious agreement, raising their voice that spoke the Borok spirit of independence and justice.

Understanding the truth that the two independent states of Manipur and Tripura were annexed into India through a treaty without binding characters when viewed from different aspects, we have to stand up as a single entity to break the chains of slavery and throw off the shackles which India put us on, it said.

It is worth remembering that these princely states were not even annexed to British India, but the merger agreements they were forced to sign had pushed both of them to the lowest status of Part C state within India disrespecting their sovereign political status they enjoyed before being merged with India, it added.

The fate of national extinction is not exclusively for the Borok and the people residing in Kangleipak, but all the struggling communities inhabiting WESEA region, it continued. To face this juggernaut of Indian colonialism that has slowly rubbed out all the Mongoloid people living in the region using both the soft and hard tools, unification of all the oppressed people of the region is highly called for, it said.

 Therefore, we, the KCP, KYKL and NLFT appeal to all the subjugated people of Manipur and Tripura to show the unity and solidarity to our struggle for national emancipation against Indian colonial occupation, it added.