The Industrious Student’s Association Cum Library Home on Friday stated that branding the ST issue as the root cause of concern, “is absolutely unfounded, illogical and appears to be with certain malicious intent.”
The student association stated in a release that the communal clash between the two communities is caused by the recent announcement of the withdrawal of Suspension of Operation by the state government of Manipur.
It stated that one of the major reasons is mass-destruction of poppy plantation in the Kuki-dominated including reserved/protected forest by the state government, for protecting further deterioration in environment under War on Drugs Policy 0.2 as a pivotal part to make defunct the narco-terrorism or Drug mafia-militant-nexus and Kuki illegal immigrants involved in the infamous syndicate.
Eviction of houses and structures illegally constructed in the reserved and protected forest area and the state government’s decision on implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in line with the GOl’s pattern also led to the clash, added the release.
It also mentioned that the recent remarks by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of Forest and Environment during his visit to Imphal that the “state government of Manipur is fully responsible in protecting the reserved and protected forest areas of Manipur,” was akin to adding salt to the wounds.
The government’s initiative on devising a face-recognizable machine associated with detection of malpractices on preparation of fake Aadhaar cards and its initiative on border wall fencing also led to the clash, it mentioned.
If the reason for organising the rally was unequivocally against the inclusion of Meitei/Meetei in the ST tag, the right step forward should be “approach to a competent court as deemed fit, as the ball is currently rolling in the court,” it added.
