Siliguri, August 25, 2015:
Disturbed by reports that Gorkhas of Manipur were being forced to leave their homes by activists agitating for the implementation of the Inner Line Permit System in the state, the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh has written to Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju, seeking protection for the Gorkhas from forceful eviction.
The Inner Line Permit system, if adopted by the Manipur legislative assembly, will require outsiders to acquire government permission to enter and stay in the state. The activists demanding the IPL system are wrongly describing the state’s Gorkhas as “outsiders”.
Rev Dr Enos Das Pradhan, national president of the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh, rued that on a day when the Gorkhas across India celebrated Balidan Diwas to commemorate the day when Major Durga Malla had died as a freedom fighter at the hands of the British in 1944, there was news that Gorkhas were facing atrocities in Manipur.
The letter to Shri Kiren Rijiju emphasised that there while the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh had no objection to the introduction of the Inner Line Permit System in Manipur, the cutoff date for identifying outsiders should be 1972, when the state had been formed.
Gorkhas were not outsiders in the state, stated Rev Dr Pradhan. “There is enough evidence to show that Gorkhas had been living in Manipur long before it was created and yet are facing a threat to their lives and properties.” He requested the Union Home Ministry to take immediate steps to stop any forceful eviction of Gorkhas from Manipur.
The National Working Committee of the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh, which met in Siliguri on August 22, has decided to send an enquiry committee comprising Shri Sukhman Moktan, Shri R. Moktan, Shri Munish Tamang and Shri Bhupendra Adhikari to Manipur to interact with the leadership of the Joint Action Committee that is spearheading the agitation for the ILP. They will apprise the Joint Action Committee of the need to recognise the rights of Gorkhas who have been living in Manipur from a time before it became a state in 1972.
A delegation is also likely to meet Shri Kiren Rijiju in New Delhi shortly to discuss the issue of Gorkhas in Manipur vis a vis the ILP.
