Meitei Groups Demand NRC In Manipur Before 2027 Census, And Submit Memo To MHA
Guwahati: Meitei non-governmental organisations, comprising 14 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Manipur, have urged the home ministry to prepare a National Register of Citizens (NRC) before the 2027 census to find a lasting solution to the conflict in the state. However, other tribal groups in the state, especially the Kuki-Zo and Nagas, have expressed concerns that the NRC could be misused to target their communities.
In a statement, 14 Meitei civil society groups based in New Delhi said, “In our meeting with the Registrar and Census Commissioner, we stated our stance that the solution to the current situation in Manipur can only be resolved by determining who are genuine Indian citizens and who are illegal immigrants in the state.”
A delegation from the Meitei community, who also met officials in the home ministry and flagged issues with ongoing demographic changes in the state, said: “In our meeting with joint secretary (foreigners) Mahatma Sandeep Namdeo, we presented data that Manipur has a long history of cross-border influxes, mainly from the Indo-Myanmar border, for over 70 years.”
“We strongly believe that the current conflict in Manipur is caused by illegal immigrants who claim to be Indian citizens and have overtaken the original Manipuri residents through illegal immigration, thereby having a significant impact on demographic changes in the state,” the group’s statement said.
Population shifts fueled deep institutional anxieties, causing “diverse communities” to begin “demanding separate governance or greater autonomy,” it said. They asked the high-level committee on demographic changes to prioritize a comprehensive, time-bound investigation into these regional differences.
The delegation, in their meeting with the MHA, also stated that the demand for an updated citizens’ register was supported by legal consensus, including the Manipur assembly, which had passed several resolutions demanding the implementation of the NRC. The bench said the Manipur government had submitted its latest decision in January 2023 to the then Union Home Minister Ajay Kumar Bhalla along with a supplementary letter requesting its immediate implementation.
They clarified that they were not against national development exercises and acknowledged that the census was a “huge National task” that remained “crucial for making future planning and development programmes”. But they said the general public currently “opposes this national mandate because it is directly related to the practice of delimiting parliamentary constituencies as well as parliamentary constituencies.”
The Delimitation Act, 1972 was implemented in Manipur based on the 1971 census figures and no new delimitation has been introduced since then. NGOs highlighted widespread public dissatisfaction with subsequent census counts, stating that “some hill districts such as Chandel and Senapati had abnormally high rates compared to others in the 2001 census, which directly affected the delimitation processes.”
The manifesto said that after intense public and legal scrutiny, the Manipur High Court had stated that “nine hilly subdivisions are required to recount the 2001 census.” They argued that since these alleged anomalies were never legally corrected, the wider exercise of containment on Manipur had completely stalled for over 40 years.
