MANIPUR - NRC

60 members of the Manipur Assembly resolved to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and establish a state Population commission. More than two dozen organizations, most of them tribal demanded an Assam-like NRC to protect the indigenous people from a perceived demographic invasion by non-local residents.

Why is Manipur pushing for NRC?

The northeastern states have been paranoid about outsiders, foreigners or alien cultures swamping out their numerically weaker indigenous communities.

These ethnic groups are the non-tribal Meitei people concentrated in the Imphal valley, the central part of Manipur and the tribal Naga and Kuki –Zomi groups mostly inhabiting the hills around.

There has been a history of conflict among these groups but the NRC issue has seemingly put the Meiteis and the Nagas on the same page.

They claim that an NRC is necessary because the political crisis in neighbouring Myanmar, triggered by the military coup in February 2021, has forced hundreds of people into the state from across its 398 km international border.

 Manipur's protective mechanisms:

• In December 2019, Manipur became the fourth northeastern state to be brought under the inner line permit (ILP) system after Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.
• A temporary official travel document to allow inward travel of an Indian citizen into a protected area the ILP is implemented under the British era Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation.
• But less than two years later, an umbrella organization that spearheaded the ILP movement said the system was flawed and that Manipur needed a stronger and more effective mechanism for protecting indigenous populations.  
• The Pro NRC organizations said Manipur did have a robust pass or permit system that regulated the entry and settlement of outsiders. But it was abolished by then Chief Commissioner Himmat Singh in November 1950, a tad more than a year after Manipur’s merger with the Union of India. This they said led to the increase” beyond imagination “in the population of non –indigenous people.
• They also called a movement in the 1980s for the detection and deportation of foreigners from Manipur, following which the state government signed two agreements for using 1951 as the base year for identifying the non-residents and evicting them.
• In June this year, Nonthombam Biren Singh’s BJP-led government approved 1961 as the base year for identifying the” natives” for ILP. Most groups are not happy with this cutoff year and insist on 1951 as the cut-off year for the NRC exercise.

Myanmar nationals:

• According to data presented in Manipur Assembly, the population growth rates in the hill districts of the state were 153.3% between 1971 and 2001 and 250.9% between 2001 and 2011 compared to the corresponding national growth rates of 87.67% and 120% respectively
• The abnormal population growth rates of the hill districts point to a strong possibility of a huge influx of non-Indians. The situation is such that smaller indigenous communities may face extinction.
• The demographic invaders in the region are Kukis, Bangladeshi and Muslims from Myanmar who have occupied the constituency of Jiribam and scattered in the valley areas as well as Nepalis who have risen in tremendous number.

NRC elsewhere in the northeast:

• Assam is the only state in the region that undertook an exercise to update the NRC of 1951 with March 24, 1971, as the cutoff date for citizenship a person.
• This date incorporated in the Assam Accord of 1985 that ended a six-year anti foreigners movement, was chosen because a large number of people were believed to have crossed over from erstwhile East Pakistan from March 25, 1971, onwards after Pakistan launched an operation to effectively start the Bangladesh liberation war.
• The complete draft of the Assam NRC was published in August 2019, excluding 19.06 lakh out of 3.3 crore applicants, which the BJP le d government in the state and some indigenous groups have refused to accept.
• Nagaland attempted a similar exercise called RIIN (Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland) in June 2019 to primarily shifting the Indigenous Nagas from the non-indigenous Nagas.
• The move seen as directed particularly against the Nagas of adjoining Manipur was shelved following opposition from several groups, including the extremist National Socialist Council of Nagalim or NSCN (1-M).