New Delhi, Aug. 25 -- A group of 14 civil society organisations representing Meiteis and Naga groups, among others, on Tuesday sought tripartite talks with the Centre and the Manipur government over their demand for an NRC with 1951 as the base year before Census 2027 and any subsequent delimitation exercise in the state.
The call for talks comes just days before the first phase of the Census is scheduled to begin in Manipur on September 1, even as the demand for "NRC first, Census later" has sharpened differences among communities and recently triggered protests and a shutdown in the ethnic conflict-hit state.
At a press conference here, the organisations said they have submitted representations to the Prime Minister's Office, Union Home Ministry and Registrar General of India. The delegation also met MHA officials, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and BJP president Nitin Nabin.
The delegation includes representatives from Meiteis, Pangals or Meitei Muslims, and the Kom and Rongmei Naga tribes, among others. It also includes representatives of people displaced from their homes during the ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki communities that erupted on May 3, 2023. In a statement, the organisations claimed there was a "huge gap" between what people in Manipur wanted and how the state government had represented the issue before central bureaucrats and political leaders.
They urged the Centre and the Manipur government to facilitate tripartite talks with different stakeholders to discuss the demand for an NRC before the Census and delimitation.
The groups sought deferment of the Census exercise in Manipur and an update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) first, arguing that citizenship should be determined before fresh population figures are used for delimitation, expressing concern that fresh population figures could alter the balance of political representation when electoral constituencies are next redrawn.
Manipur's population broadly comprises three major ethnic groupings -- the Meiteis, Nagas and Kuki-Zo people.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.