KSDC reiterates demand for Kuki state

PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi was urged to create Kuki state immediately, in a fresh memorandum submitted by Kuki State Demand Committee (KSDC) on Tuesday.

KSDC, in the memorandum, claimed that Kukis’ demand for a separate state was a legitimate and a long overdue demand. It stated that Kukis were independent people before the British colonial state annexed their territory. They had struggled to shake the colonial yoke from the start which culminated into the great Kuki Rising of 1917-19.

With great hope for freedom, the Kukis also participated in large numbers in the ranks and files of the Indian National Army (INA) during the Second World War (1943-44) in Northeastern India, it claimed. “We had supported the Indian freedom movement in whatever ways we could in the hope of some special political entity after India got independence,” the KSDC claimed. It added that immediately after India got independence, they had demanded a separate “Kuki district” on the line of other tribal districts in the region.

But when the concept of “district” changed in the new India, they also switched over to the idea of “state”. The Kuki National Assembly, India (KNA), which was formed in 1946 as the political front of the Kuki people, spearheaded the movement for “immediate establishment of Kuki State” since 1960.

It submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru for the creation of Kuki state in northeast India by bringing together “all contiguous areas now under the habitation of the Kukis in India.” Unfortunately, the government of India (GoI) had given a deaf ear to the democratic demand of the nationalist Kukis despite several other representations. However, even after seven years of SoO no political dialogue was initiated by the government despite several rounds of talk and an equal number of promises, the KSDC stated in the memorandum.

Kuki people under the aegis of Kuki Inpi formed the Kuki State Demand Committee (KSDC) in 2010 in order to bring home to the notice of GoI and Indian public that Kukis demand for separate statehood is the genuine and legitimate rights and demand of the Kuki people of India, it added.

Reiterating that the government must create a separate state for Kukis, the KSDC stated that the Kuki population is scattered across all the states of Northeast India with maximum concentration in the state of Manipur. It said Kukis continue to remain backward even after 60 years of Independence.

~ Nagaland Post

Pic courtesy: Zale’ngam

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