The Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL), the apex civil organisation of the Tangkhul community on Saturday meet Governor of Manipur, Ajay Kumar Bhalla and apprise him on the border fencing, delimitation, ADCs election and bifurcation of the budget into two components – one for general (valley) and the other for the hills.
The TNL as a follow up on the memorandum submitted to the Governor on 6 May and 29 May 2025 apprised him of the utmost necessity to expedite actions on the following issues:
1. Border Fencing – Sir, we Nagas are reasonably sure that by now your honour must be sufficiently aware of our emotional and sentimental upsurge on the issue of border fencing. Border Fencing to us is nothing less than colonial relic that seeks to keep the Nagas perpetually divided on either side of the Indo-Myanmar border. It is not an exaggeration that we Nagas have had to suffer the ugly handout of divide and rule prior to and ever since India’s independence. For no fault of ours we continue to suffer shame and pain of having to survive in a house divided against itself. So regretfully, the Government of India having inherited all colonial relics have sadly enough, reinforced the most atrocious divide and rule by deciding to go ahead with border fencing right through the heart and soul of Naga homeland. Without beating about the bush, we Nagas wish to make it loud and clear that we shall pull out all stops against the colonialistic attempt to construct border fencing through the Naga homeland. Needless to mention border fencing is only an alibi for the state government of Manipur to justify their utter failure of public governance resulting in the infamous ethnic violence May 2023. We demand in the interest of humanity and justice that the border fencing through Naga homeland be scrapped forthwith.
2. Delimitation in democracy is what determines the fair and just shares of the constituent units in the political power structure of public governance via the Assembly/Parliament. The criteria for Delimitations as per the law are demography and topography. As per which the existing Delimitation structures are totally out of sync with the spirit and letter of the democratic constitutional laws. Tribal MsLA (19) on average commands a population of 78000 & physical size of 1150 sq.km of exceedingly difficult terrains. As against which, MsLA in the valley (40) on average looks after a population of 43000 and a Physical size of 50 sq.km. For 50 years we Nagas have allowed ourselves being treated as beggars that incidentally and of course, eminently gell with “The never enough attitude” of the dominant groups in the valley. Enough is Enough, the only way forward for removal of age-old gross Injustice to the Nagas, must only be “complete restructure of existing delimitations with overriding weightage to Topography”. On this most viable criteria which is wholly in tune with the spirit and letter of the Democratic Constitution, tribal shares in the 60 strong Legislature can never be less than 35 (22 for the Nagas and 13 for Chin-Kukis).
3. ADC elections far from helping the tribals, the Nagas in particular to secure political and economic empowerment, have turned into political instruments to perpetuate political and economic enslavement of the tribals by the valley. It is a deadly combination of Naga political leaderships acting so complicit in all the acts of Deception and Exploitation of the hills by the valley that things otherwise totally absurd and abnormal are being readily accepted as normal. The absurdity has reached such a level that in all 51 years of ADC’s existence, the institutions have gone on without elections for 26 years (1995 to 2015 & 2020 to 2025). And yet, after deep slumber for six years, we Naga (Fools & Dreamy that we are) are getting mesmerized at the high prospect of ADC elections. We assure your kind Self that we would stop deceiving ourselves and such that others wouldn’t dare deceive us!. Henceforth, we would welcome ADC elections only on condition that the existing ADCs would come under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India within a period of one year of the elections. Our demand is: unequivocal commitment in black and white to grant us the VIth Schedule to the Constitution within one year of the ADC elections. Should they fail to commit themselves to our just and strictly constitutional demand, we would regretfully reject ADCs elections under the Vth Schedule.
4. The root cause for rampant corruptions resulting in wholesale deprivations of the tribals (Nagas) is for reason of non-bifurcation of the budget into two Components – one for general (valley) and the other for the hills. Bifurcation of budget is envisaged in the Presidential orders vide Gazette notifications dt. 20.06.1972 section 4: 3 & 4. We beseech your kind Self to ensure immediate implementation.
“Your Honor would appreciate that the above mentioned four Demands are strictly constitutional and therefore, should be acceded to without further delay. We humbly request that the Nagas would not be forced into confrontational mode. We are indeed grateful to your honor for granting us patient hearing. We eagerly look forward to the speedy redressal of our grievances” added the memorandum.
