The Kukis uphold their God-given rights to their ancestral lands and do not recognise colonialists’ international boundaries, Kuki Inpi Manipur said.
TFM Representative, Kangpokpi
Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) rubbished the alleged objectionable statement of the United Naga Council over the untimely demise and burial of Prof Nehginpao Kipgen who succumbed to the dreaded COVID-19.
The UNC paying their heartfelt condolence and taking the liberty to slander and raising many pertinent questions upon the late Prof Nehginpao Kipgen, was to say the least, not unexpected, KIM said.
It continued that when our country and countries around the world are engaged in a pitched battle against the dreaded second wave of COVID-19 pandemic and its mutant variants, with the death toll rising each passing day, the UNC unmindful of the grim reality besieging us as a whole, chose instead to play dirty politics over the unfortunate death of the late professor, reveling and revealing in the process their inhumanness, moral bankruptcy, shallowness, prejudice, blind hate and pride.
If the UNC, considered itself to be an organisation of repute, it would not stoop so low as to play politics over the death, in a brazen attempt to gain a few brownie points, from whosoever gallery they are planning to, it added.
It is the humble advise of the Kuki Inpi Manipur to the UNC that they should study thoroughly the relevant provisions of the Indian Constitution dealing with the citizenship of our nation, that is, Part II of the Constitution (Article 5-11), before they make any outrageous statements, cast aspersions or raise ludicrous questions upon the legacy of anyone or any community-death or living, it further said.
It also said that in the same vein, the Kuki Inpi Manipur gently reminds the UNC that the late academician Prof Nehginpao Kipgen, executive director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University was solemnly buried at Leikot village in Kangpokpi District and not Senapati District as fallaciously claimed by them in its statement.
KIM also reminded the UNC of the resolution endorsed and passed by the General Assembly (107 Plenary meeting, September 13, 2007), 6/295 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, Article 36 – wherein it is explicitly stated “Indigenous peoples in particular those divided by international borders, have the right to maintain and develop contacts, relations and cooperation, including activities for spiritual, cultural, political, economic, and social purposes, with their own members as well as with other people across borders”.
The Kukis uphold their God-given rights to their ancestral lands and do not recognise colonialists’ international boundaries, it added.
The Kuki Inpi Manipur advised the UNC to refrain from intermeshing up condolence and political vanity in one go, in the future, and to restraint itself from making outrageous questions upon the death who can no longer defend themselves as such an abominable attitude only betrays one’s disposition, vainness and dubious standards while adding that it will be prudent on their part if they could cultivate respect for the death irrespective of caste, creed and community.
Meanwhile, the Kuki Inpi Manipur also said that of late, there has been an incessant vicious attack upon the Kuki-Chin-Mizo community in the state from various quarters and the authorities concerned, far from playing the role of the neutral arbiter, is allowing these vitriolic attacks to go on unchecked, to the point that one could assume that it is indirectly encouraging these hostilities towards a particular community.
This is truly regrettable; the rule of law must prevail above and irrespective of all, it said and added let us all strive instead, to shed off any pugnaciousness or idiosyncrasies we have or may harbour of one another.
Factually speaking, who amongst us here, is fit to cast the first stone!?, it asked.