Inner Line Permit System in Manipur – Our birthright ‘Unity in diversity’ - a very beautiful clause has been the hallmark of India. This clause was scripted as a means of contemplating to other nations of the world that in a pluralistic, multi-religious, multi-lingual nation like ours, the cohesive existence among the various multi-ethno-cultural groups is a cakewalk. The very clause really digs hard to bring out the beauty to the fore that the identity, culture, land, language, script etc of the various indigenous and ethnic groups and communities in India is protected whereby the denizens of various states and union territories live together with love, peace and unity regardless of its diversity. But in reality its like the dark side of the moon. It is more like a phantom clause bearing the deceptive meaning, `Engulf them all’. The controversial remark by RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat that Hindustan(India) is a Hindu nation and Hindutva is the identity of our nation bears testimony to that. India is like a big sea with diverse creatures where the big ones engulf the smaller ones. What an irony. Sometimes many questions emerge like, “Is Indian democracy a true democracy?”. India boasts as one of the largest democratic country in the world but in reality it is fiercer than a tyrannical rule. The very meaning of ‘democracy’ is not served right when democracy becomes the very tool to kill its own people. Manipur has been gifted with a draconian law known as Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958, a law deemed unfit to be included in the Constitution of a democratic nation. Besides being a demonic act that gives special powers to the security forces to counter militancy and insurgency it is also a tool that acts as a ‘leveller’ to decrease the number of denizens of the region as much as possible with its ‘license to kill’ power on mere suspicion mingled with other kinds of activities such as fake encounter which the security forces carry out with full impunity so that the indigenous population of Manipur with Mongoloid features is pruned as much as possible with the strategic aim of mainland India of Aryan and Dravidian blood engulfing the miniscule population of the region. As per Indian constitution, anybody can go and reside in any part of India. But for the north eastern region of India there is an exception. The Indian Constitution adopted from Irish has in its store various Acts for preserving the ethnic indigenous communities of India with Northeast in particular. It is a known fact that the states of Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were equipped with Inner Line Permit System as per Eastern Bengal Frontier Act 1873 and the system was implemented in Manipur from 1947 to 1950 to control influx of Non-Manipuris from outside the state. Such a system ensured identification, detection, registration and control of illegal immigration in Manipur. In 1948, the Government of India had officially approved retention of the permit system in Manipur but this permit system was abolished by Mr Himmat Singh, the then Chief Commissioner of Manipur on 18 Nov 1950. Since then, there has been unchecked influx of outsiders leading to unprecedented increase of immigrant population in Manipur. The ILPS should not be mistaken as a tool for restricting entry of people from outside the state. It is a system to regulate and control the magnitude of huge influx to prevent the small ethnic population of Manipur from being engulfed. Nagaland is doing well with this system so do Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. A glaring example may be made of Tripura where the indigenous people of Tripura has been engulfed and drowned in the big sea of Bengali immigrants. Now the indigenous tribes of Tripura has almost become extinct. Same is the case with ethnic tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Now, we the Manipuris are next. In fact the marginalisation of the indigenous populace has already started in Manipur also. Realising this, many student
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 16:53:13 +0000
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