The KCP cited the recent termination of a 10-day bandh by Arambai Tenggol as a “commendable course correction,” suggesting such an approach had the capacity for more impactful methods.
TFM Desk
In a decisive move targeting a deeply entrenched practice, the proscribed Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) has announced a permanent and immediate ban on all bandhs (general strikes/shutdowns) across Kangleipak (Manipur). The party’s highest body, the Politburo Standing Committee, issued a strongly worded communiqué on June 10, 2035, condemning bandhs as “deeply regressive,” “socially injurious,” and disproportionately harmful to the state’s most vulnerable citizens.
The press release issued by Ibungo Ngangom, Chairman of the KCP Politburo Standing Committee opened with a scathing critique, lamenting that Kangleipak was being reduced to “Bandhleipak” due to the frequent disruptions. It expressed dismay at the silence of civil society and intellectuals regarding the harms of bandhs and declared the party’s resolve to actively oppose the “culture of bandhs” and confront the “bandh merchants” who perpetuate them.
The proscribed KCP detailed the severe impact of bandhs on Kangleipak’s socio-economically fragile segments, highlighting three key groups:
1. Rickshaw Drivers: Facing instant loss of daily income, fear of violence and vehicle damage, EMI/rental defaults, and fuel shortages.
2. Women Vendors: Suffering complete loss of perishable goods (vegetables, fish), no safety net, harassment, and supply chain breakdowns affecting food security.
3. Daily Wage Earners: Enduring “no work, no food” realities, project disruptions leading to job losses, and household strain forcing borrowing at predatory rates or hunger.
The KCP identified education as one of the most severely affected areas. Frequent bandhs cause unscheduled closures, derailing academic calendars, compressing syllabi, and promoting rote learning. Students from marginalized and rural backgrounds face amplified hurdles due to unreliable transport and limited digital access. Urban students grapple with exam postponements, safety concerns, and stress. The KCP warned this leads to disillusionment, increased dropouts (especially among girls), a widening educational divide, brain drain, and academic stagnation, ultimately eroding public trust in education as a path to mobility.
Healthcare Exemption: A Meaningless Term
The party challenged the notion that healthcare is exempt during bandhs. It stated that fear, logistical paralysis, and roadblocks prevent healthcare workers from reaching facilities, delay ambulances, force pharmacies to close, and prevent patients, especially in rural areas, from accessing critical care. “The operational immunity… becomes largely symbolic,” the communiqué asserted.
The KCP linked recurring instability to the rise of “crisis capitalism,” where non-local business interests (specifically outsider networks controlling over 80% of trade) exploit disruptions to manipulate markets and inflate prices, threatening indigenous economic sovereignty.
It also dismantled the justification that bandhs serve the “greater interests of phurup” (nation/community). The party labelled this a dangerous consequentialist logic permitting immediate suffering for vague future gains, easily hijacked by factional interests. It further questioned the democratic legitimacy of “self-appointed” bandh enforcers claiming to represent the masses without consultation or consent.
Critique of Bandh Organizers & Call for Alternatives
The proscribed KCP pointedly noted that top leaders of bandh-calling organizations typically hail from economically secure backgrounds, unaffected by the disruptions they cause. Their children attend elite institutions outside Kangleipak, and their healthcare needs are met privately, often in metropolitan cities. “The bandhs scarcely affect the lives of those who call for them, yet they exact a heavy toll on the very people these leaders claim to represent,” it stated, accusing organizers of a “stark moral and political void”, said KCP.
The proscribed outfit advocated for numerous constructive alternatives: peaceful sit-ins, civil disobedience, signature campaigns, awareness drives, dialogue, organized demonstrations, legal interventions, and sustained civic engagement. It even challenged proponents of confrontation to directly target centers of power (like the Raj Bhavan or Secretariat) instead of harming ordinary citizens. The party cited the recent termination of a 10-day bandh by Arambai Tenggol as a “commendable course correction,” suggesting such an approach had the capacity for more impactful methods.
Citing a survey of 1,000 individuals using digital and physical questionnaires, the KCP claimed that 100% opposition to bandhs as a protest tool. Based on this and the outlined harms, the Politburo Standing Committee unanimously adopted four resolutions:
1. Permanent Ban: An immediate and unequivocal ban on calling bandhs in Kangleipak.
2. Embrace Alternatives: A call to civil society organizations to adopt impactful yet constructive protest methods that do not harm livelihoods or education.
3. Open Debate: A willingness to engage in a “sophistry-free” public debate with organizations opposing the ban, while preferring discourse leading to a peaceful end to bandhs.
4. Unity for Progress: An appeal for unity among civil society organizations to uphold collective struggle, social justice, empowerment, and progress.
The KCP concluded by urging a move beyond “harmful reflexes” towards an era of “meaningful resistance.” It emphasized that neither bandhs nor high-level talks alone would secure Kangleipak’s future. Instead, the “phurup” must focus on cultivating scientists, doctors, engineers, and professionals, building a formidable national scholarly heritage, regaining economic control from non-local networks, and achieving strategic ascendancy within socio-political and bureaucratic systems. “Only through such comprehensive and self-directed empowerment can we shape the destiny of our phurup on our own terms!” the KCP statement declared.