The man in the frame is none other than our nonagenarian Awo Chinaongai Yangya, one of the senior most citizens from my ancestral Village-Phungcham Yangreiram, particularly, Paorei hamlet/colony. For the Tangkhul Naga Community, Awo C. Yangya (MPS) became famous as the Police Officer who arrested the first Naga Lok Sabha MP and the former four time Chief Minister Lt. Rishang Keishing in 1978, while serving as the Additional SP of Ukhrul.
In the year 1974, Awo C. Yangya became the first Tangkhul to be selected for the prestigious Manipur Police Service (MPS) and was successfully /fully Commissioned as MPS Officer in 1975, upon completion of probation.
It may be highlighted that direct recruitment into MCS/MPS began only after the amendment of the Manipur Civil Service (MCS) Rules and the establishment of the MPSC in 1972, the very year Manipur became a full- fledged state (1972).
1960-1970; FIVE CITIZENS OF PHUNGCHAM YANGREIRAM VILLAGE WHO STUDIED AT GAUHATI UNIVERSITY DURING THE DECADE.
Awo Ch. Yangya (MPS) graduated from DM College Imphal, and completed his MA in Political Science from Gauhati University (1966). His batchmate from my ancestral Village of Phungcham at Gauhati University was Lt. Peter Pheiray(1st popularly elected MLA of Chingai AC in 1971), who also successfully earned his MA degree in Political Science from the University (1966). Which means, they both(Yangya & Pheiray) joined the Department of Political Science, Gauhati University, the very year Àvàkharar obtained his MA degree(1964) or exited the University.
During the decade (1960-1970) and for the educated elite of the Village of Phungcham Yangreiram, the premier Gauhati University was invariably the dream destination for PG Studies. From this very University, Dr. M. Horam of Phungcham Yangreiram, completed his MA in Political Science(1962). Another fellow Villager Lt. Yangkahao Pheiray, the founder-cum-1st Principal (1965-1985) of the second oldest government College in Manipur i.e. Pettigrew College and also the former Chairman of BOSEM, was adjudged as the first Tangkhul to receive an MA degree in History from Gauhati University, in the year 1964 (personally conveyed to me by the person, before his death).
Four years later in 1968, my uncle Lt. Lungrei Zimik (my father’s elder brother) also obtained his MA degree (3 Marks short of MA 1st Class) in Political Science from Gauhati University.
THROUGH THE INTELLECTUAL PRISM OF A CITIZEN FROM PHUNGCHAM YANGREIRAM.
For the Tangkhul Naga Community, Awo C. Yangya (MPS) became famous as the Police Officer who arrested the first Naga Lok Sabha MP and the former four time Chief Minister Lt. Rishang Keishing in 1978, while serving as the Additional SP of Ukhrul in the government of Mr. Shaiza, the then Chief Minister.
In the year 1977, Lt. Yangmaso Shaiza was elected as the 4th Tribal and the 3rd Tangkhul MP (1st Rishang, 2nd Suisa, 3rd Paokai Haokip and 4th Yangmaso Shaiza) of Manipur, but he resigned from the Parliament and returned to Manipur state Politics, co-terminus with the period when Shri Morarji Desai (ex-ICS officer), a former Chief Minister of undivided Bombay state(Gujarat & Maharashtra combined) & ex- Union Finance Minster, became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India during the Post-Emergency Period (1977-1979).
PRISON TERM IN MANIPUR, A RARE BADGE OF HONOUR
Many people from Manipur appear to be surprised when educated about the fact that both the Tangkhul Chief Ministers of Manipur- Lt. Rishang Keishing and Lt. Yangmaso Shaiza- experienced prison terms.
The second Tangkhul/Tribal Chief Minister Lt.Rishang Keishing was arrested through the Executive Order of the then Chief Minister Yangmaso Shaiza(1978), because the former took the tough & conscious decision to stay loyal to his boss Smt. Indira Gandhi. In less than two years, Rishang Keishing was rewarded for having displayed the “Virtue of loyalty” by being annointed as the Chief Minister in 1980.
While being the CM of Manipur, Yangmaso Shaiza summoned the former Prime Minister of India Smt. Indira Gandhi to Imphal Court, and apparently, for some excesses committed during the Emergency period (Soso Shaiza, E-Pao, 05, December, 2014).
On the other end of the Political spectrum, Chief Minister Yangmaso Shaiza was jailed twice; one during the Emergency Period (1975-1977, under MISA) and an earlier stint, during the early 1950s, for having staged an independence Movement of Manipur, after having resigned from his job as an Extra Assistant Commissioner (EAC), opposing the merger agreement of Manipur into the Indian Union(1949). It is on record that Yangmaso Shaiza submitted resignation letter to his Superior authorities on three separate occasions, one of which was rejected. His resignation letter was accepted twice, but in the earlier case, the man was reinstated into the Service.
SHAIZA, THE FIRST SECOND GENERATION BUREAUCRAT OF MANIPUR
Yangmaso Shaiza became the first Second generation bureaucrat of Manipur, when he was selected for the job of SDC as Extra Assistant Commissioner (EAC) or Circle Officer in1946(conveyed to me by Lt. Rishang Keishing). His own father Shangyang Shaiza joined the state government before the commencement of the first world war(WWI), served as Commandant of the Labour Corps, only to retire as Extra Assistant Commissioner /Circle Officer (Dr.Simraymayon Hungyo, 14th November, 2014, E-Pao).
SHAIZA & RISHANG ; TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES THAT TRAVERSED THROUGH THE UNIVERSE OF MANIPUR POLITICS
Dr. Simraymayon Hungyo wrote that Yangmaso Shaiza was a larger than life figure, whose extraordinary life is being celebrated by the Meiteis of Manipur Valley even now; the Meiteis of Singjamei (Assembly Constituency of the current Honourable Chief Minister of Manipur Shri Khemchand), Tera and Bishnupur still perform Puja over the portrait of Yangmaso Shaiza, who had pre-deceased us 38 years ago in 1984(Dr. Hungyo, 15th November, 2014, E-Pao). The central theme of the Pre-Hindu Meitei religion revolves around ancestral worship, Pakhangba for the Royal /Ningthouja Family and Sanamahi, a household deity of the Meitei adherents of Sanamahism.
On the other hand, Lt. Rishang Keishing remains the only Naga Politician and the only former Chief Minister of Manipur who turned down the Gubernatorial position of an Indian state(Madhya Pradesh), as early as 1989, and this was conveyed to me by the man himself and by his own son Shri Victor Keishing, former MLA of Manipur. Madhya Pradesh was then the largest Indian state and the offer was made by the then Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi, more or less, a consolation for being unseated as the Chief Minister of Manipur in 1988 over the Oinam Crisis(1988).
Ngahanyui Zimik
(The views and opinions in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of Rural Post)
