Manipur News

IMPHAL, June 3: Villagers of N Mollen village in 24-Bongbal Khullen Constituency under Saikhul Sub-Division, Sadar Hills in Senapati district have resolved to not cast vote in re-poll whenever it is to be conducted if a separate polling station for electorates of the village is not set up.

Addressing a press meet somewhere in Imphal this evening, chief of N Mollen village Ngailam Haokip said that voters of Salam Patong village, Thangza village and N Mollen village have been casting their vote for MP and MLA election only at Polling Station No 24/4 in respect of 24-Bongbal Khullen Constituency.

He elaborated that the polling station is situated at Salam Patong, making it hard for voters of N Mollen village to travel up to the polling station to exercise their franchise.

Voters of the village had to travel a distance of 18-km to cast vote at the polling station. Since most of the voters are poor people, they could not hire vehicle for travelling up to the polling station. A considerable amount of time is taken if travel by foot as the voters had to pass through hill road to reach the polling station. Due to such conditions, there have been instances where many voters of the village could not cast their valuable vote, the village chief lamented.

Claiming that when voters of the village went to cast vote at the polling station for the just concluded Autonomous District (ADC) election, it came to know that their vote had already been cast, he said that the voters were shocked by the stunning revelation.

Given such unwarranted situation, a separate polling station for N Mollen village having 164 eligible voters is much required. Therefore, the voters of the village have decided to not cast vote in re-poll at the polling station at Salam Patong whenever it is to be conducted, he made it clear.

Chairman of N Mollen village Thoumang Haokip and chairperson of village women committee Lamnam Touthang were also present during the meet.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/villagers-vow-to-not-cast-vote-in-manipur-adc-repoll-over-absence-of-polling-station/

IMPHAL June 3: The Congress would have won majority seats in the Autonomous District Council election had there been a free and fair election without the interference and intimidation from armed militant groups, claimed deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam.

Addressing media persons during a marathon press meet which lasted two hours at the Manipur Congress Bhawan, today, Gaikhangam who is also the State Home minister claimed his party has been the main victim during the recent ADC election.

He, also, denied any link up with Kuki militants during the election process.

When the Zalenbung DCC under Ukhrul ADC case was cited, where in three polling stations Kuki militants allegedly cast all the votes at gun point and later when a public mob broke the ballot box at Malom around 90 percent of the votes cast were found in favour of his party candidate, the MPCC president brushed it aside as some people trying to blackmail the Congress and said they have recommended re-polls.

`The Election Commission needs to recognize voting under duress and intimidation not just for the present case but also during Legislative and Parliamentary elections. Methodology to address such situations needs to be developed. As of now technically unless the presiding officer recommends, the other authorities can do nothing`™ he observed.

NSCN-IM and its subsidiary groups have created a lot of disturbance in the ADC election process through intimidation, he claimed.

It is an undeniable fact that armed NSCM cadres were directly involved, alleged the deputy Chief Minister.

It has been embarrassing to witness BJP`™s propaganda when they cannot even be an alternative. Such approach seems to be merely aiming at strengthening NPF with an understanding to confront Congress collectively, he asserted.

One Union Minister had explicitly hinted towards post election alliance with NPF which clearly confirms this intent, he added.

He lambasted the NPF party at length accusing it as backed and created by NSCN-IM and said that NPF will only destabilized the State with predictable provocations.

`It is unfortunate for BJP to ally with such an anti-State party`™, he said.

On a hopeful note, the deputy Chief Minister claimed, `Despite all this incidents we trust that we will be a majority in four out of the six constituents.`™

On the presence of central security forces during the election, Gaikhangam said in some areas they were mere spectators in the guise that they are meant for counter insurgency and local law and order does not require their interventions.

`We had expected them to carry out area sanitization and area domination against the presence of militant groups`™ he said.

After a repetitive discussion on encroachment at Dzukho areas, somebody pointed out that the government as a trend seems to respond only after bandh and general strikes are called by public thus encouraging such culture.

However, Gaikhangam claimed that the government has been strategizing all along.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/congress-would-have-won-majority-in-a-free-and-fair-fight-gaikhangam/

BJP claims KRA cadres assaulted 13 workers for not supporting Congress candidate

IMPHAL, June 3: Two days after the Autonomous District Council election was held in the hills of the State, political parties and their candidates continue to hurl allegations against each other.

If the run-up to the election was marked by constant mudslinging among the political parties, post the June 1 polls, there have been demands of re-poll from candidates and political parties citing allegations of UG cadres supporting a particular candidate and party, booth capture, mass proxy voting, assault of party workers and supporters among many other allegations.

BJP general secretary Administration M Asnikumar led team today visited hospitals where party supporters allegedly assaulted last night for not supporting another national party are getting treatment.

According to the BJP, 13 of its workers were allegedly assaulted by cadres of the KRA for not supporting the Congress and have to be admitted at different hospitals in the State capital.

Three of them are admitted at the RIMS, nine at the Kuki Christian Hospital, Dewlahland and one at Raj Medi-City, North AOC.

According to family members of some of the injured, the night after the ADC poll, around 30-40 cadres of the KRA many of whom were armed with AK-47s came to Lhungjang Village under 18-Lhungjang DCC, Saikul AC and called out nine youth of the village who are active workers of the BJP.

They claimed that the youth who were all aged between 18-19 years were assaulted by the KRA cadres.

At the same time, in another village of the same constituency Ankhunbung Village, some more youth were called out and mercilessly assaulted, they alleged.

Speaking on the sideline of the visit, Asnikumar said such incident is highly condemnable and we have already submitted a detailed report of the incidents to the BJP national president and the concern central ministry.

He said it is surprising that the armed cadres of the KRA which is a SoO signatory group were allowed free movement outside their camps.

Further questioning what the State government and the central para-military forces doing when the incident happened, he said such incident is a total violation of rights.

He further demanded the State government to take action against the SoO cadres for violating their ground rules and assaulting civilians and claimed the party is fully aware of who is behind the incident.

Such incident has only made it all the more clear that there is no governance in the hill areas, he claimed.

He further claimed that in four villages of Saikul area under 22 Kumuching DCC, not a single voter was allowed to cast their votes.

Asnikumar further identified the villages as Molkongbung village, L Molnom Village, Gotangkot Village and C Moljol village.

He said in this regard, he along with the party`™s candidate Th Anek Vaiphei had submitted a complaint report to the concern officials seeking re-poll in these villages, which has not been considered still by the Kangpokpi RO.

He further alleged that at 21/1 Khamenlok Polling Station under Chindaikhullen DCC, the poll was conducted in a peaceful manner, however certain officials are seeking re-poll there in favour of the non-BJP candidates.

Asni also asserted that according to the party`™s Tamei office, the NSCN (I) openly supported the NPF and conducted proxy voting openly in support of the NPF candidates.

He said there was no election in the area, but it was an open selection of NPF candidate for the ADC seat.

Whereas at 3-Khunphung DCC Piulong Polling Station under Tamei AC, the entire village was unable to reach the polling station to vote, however, the RO has reported that voting was conducted in a peaceful manner, he further claimed.

Due to proxy voting at Sagang DCC 20/2 Changpikot Polling Station and 2 Leimatak DCC 2/13 Teijang Polling Station in Churachandpur poll percentage reached 100percent, however, the DC has not included these two polling stations in the re-poll recommendation list, he asserted.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/political-parties-indulge-in-postpoll-allegations-and-counter-allegations/

CHANDEL, June 3: Following an agreement between the agitating JAC and the Assam Rifles authority in the presence of the State government, the indefinite bandh imposed by Joint Action Committee formed against killing of Aimol Satu Numei`™s Waar (meirapaibis) chairperson M Ruisoting Aimol at Pallel has been called off from today.

This was informed by the JAC this evening after the meeting which was held in the morning at the Chief Minister`™s bungalow in Imphal.

Subsequent to the understanding reached between the JAC and government, the Ruisoting Aimol`™s body kept at the JNIMS Morgue has been retrieved by the family members for her last rites.

Demanding punishment of the accused killer Majao Aditya Kapoor from 20 Assam RIfles, a large number of women blocked the section of NH-102 at Pallel today.

Passenger buses suspended normal services and movement of private vehicles were disrupted during the bandh. Shops in Pallel bazaar too remained closed. The agitating women also shouted slogans and proceeded towards main gate of the 26 Sector AR headquarters located in Pallel.

It might be mentioned that M Ruisothing Aimol (56), a mother to six children was injured by the bullets of Assam Rifles at Aimol Satu Village on mid night of May 31. Even though she was treated at Shija Hospital she succumbed to her injury at 2 am on June 1.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Organisation Research and Education (CORE) has expressed serious concern over the death of the chairperson of Aimol Numei Waar Manipur, Maibam (o) Ruisoting, 55, wife of M. Babhudon of Aimol Satu village under Tengnoupal police station.

A press release of the CORE has stated that according to a information received from the area, three other women from the same village were also allegedly tortured by the same Assam Rifles personnel during the incident who are currently undergoing medical treatment at Jivan Hospital, Kakching.

CORE has urgently urged the State government to look into the incident and institute an impartial, independent judicial inquiry to book and punish those found guilty according to the rule of law for the end of justice, it said.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/pallel-bandh-called-off-as-jac-reaches-agreement/

THOUBAL, June 3: Supporters of the BJP candidate of 10-Aihang District Council Constituency and independent candidate of 13-Vomku District Council Constituency took out a mass protest rally today in Chandel district headquarter alleging proxy voting and booth capturing in the June 1 ADC election.

The rally commenced from the Chandel Oil Pump.

Placard holding protestors marched towards the Chandel DC complex and submitted a memorandum to the DC Robert Kshetrimayum Singh.

The chief agents and candidates also interacted with the DC and aired their grievances to which the DC assured to look into the matter and take necessary actions.

Speaking to media persons, independent candidate of 10-Aihang DCC SK Setoi said volunteers of the Congress prohibited him and his election agent from entering the polling station of 10/1 Aihang around 6:30am on the day of the voting.

Soon after the arrival of Assam Rifles personnel in the polling station, we went to the polling station but were again waylaid by the Congress supporters and some unidentified individuals at the village gate and prohibited us from proceeding further, he claimed.

He further claimed that the workers of the Congress candidate were given a free hand at the 10/1 Aihang Polling Station as the concern authority failed to take up any action despite being informed about the incident.

This is unacceptable in a democracy, he added.

Although a written complaint has been submitted to the concern authority, the concern returning officer has failed to take up any action, he claimed.

A worker of BJP Candidate for 13 Vomku DCC Angkhulon Shilshi also told the media persons that some workers of a particular candidate captured the Polling Stations of 13/4 Larong Khullen, 13/7 Phiran Khullen and 13/8 Anal Khullen and their polling agents were not allow to sit inside the polling stations.

He continued on the day of the voting, political agents were reaching to the respective polling stations around 5am, however, workers of another candidate threatened them and prohibited the agents from entering the polling station except for the agents of Naga People`™ Front.

And since the polling agents were not allowed to sit inside the station, they were unable to make any complaint to the polling officers, he said and continued further that however, they went to the district headquarter and lodged a complaint to the election officers but the complaint was not entertained and no action taken up still.

Expressing his doubts about the malpractice, Shilshi also questioned whether the alleged malpractice at the three polling stations were a pre-plan of a particular candidate in collusion with the polling officer and other staff.

In order to verify the malpractices in these polling stations, thump impressions/signatures of the voters in the Register of Voters (Form 17A) column 3 can be also compared, he added.

While appealing to of the concern authorities to look into the issue, Angkhulon Shilshi also warned to taken up an intense form of public agitation if the concern authority delay in tackling the issue.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/supporters-of-bjp-and-independent-candidates-agitate-against-alleged-proxy-voting/

By Bobby Sorokhaibam

One of the charms of living in a democratic polity is that while it privileges the voice of the majority with the right to run the government, it must simultaneously respect the voices of the minorities. A vibrant democracy recognises pluralities of views and identities as a fundamental fact of social existence. It is in this light that `protest,`™ both as idea and practice, enjoys a pride of place in a democracy, since it enables various minorities and publics to express contrary views, register objections to wrongs and above all, put a check against the arbitrary exercise of power by the government of the day. It further provides a platform allowing various interests and identities to come together and in the process, form a `public`™ against the exploitation and excesses of power.

Protests are not merely carriers of dissent but more crucially vehicles of justice. Hence, the significance of protest cannot be over-exaggerated; it is inherent in the idea of democracy itself! The recent order of the High Court of Manipur asking the state government to make available to the public a space for holding peaceful protests and agitations may thus be viewed as a tribute to this ideal of democracy.

A protest however can take various forms. Uniquely South Asian among them is `bandh`™, which typically involves forced closure of all forms of transport, government and private offices, educational institutions, shops, etc. In Manipur, despite highly palpable public opinion against the all-too-frequent resort to bandh, it continues to be most the preferred mode of protest, the default protest as it were! A sample of reasons for calling bandhs in the recent past range from cases of custodial killing, atrocities by armed forces, death of civilians in explosions at public places etc. to conflict of land between villages, demand for regularisation of government jobs and increase in pay scales, demand for districts, transfer of a principal of an educational institution, etc. They can be either localised or state-wide bandhs. Apart from these numerous bandhs, there have been the infamous economic blockades of the arterial lifelines of Manipur. It was reported that there were 20, 48 and 42 days of bandhs in the years 2004-5, 2005-6, 2006-7 respectively while the corresponding figures of economic blockade were 60, 97, and 77 days. Some infamous blockades in recent memory have been the 55 day economic blockade by The All Naga Students Association (ANSAM) in 2005 against the decision of the state government to declare June 18 as State Integrity Day , the 69 day blockade by ANSAM and Naga Students Federation (NSF) in 2010 against government`™s banning of NSCN (I-M) supremo, ThuingalengMuivah`™s entry into Manipur, and the 92 day long blockade by Sardar Hills District Demand Committee (SHDDC) to which a counter-blockade lasting 120 days was imposed by United Naga Council (UNC) in 2011.

Quotidian conversations among people feature the loss to academic life and future of the next generation, and seek to account for an exodus of students outside the state. Narratives of daily hardships that people face due to bandhs ofteninvolve mention of emergency fatalities which go unnoticed. Clearly, bandhs and blockadeshave affected the lowest economic strata the most, denying them their daily wages or the chance to sell a day`™s harvest in the market. All matters of life and death for a vast section of the population. At another level, official estimates of loss to government exchequer were reported to be Rs. 25.7 million every day and about Rs. 2.45 billion as a whole during the 92 day blockade – hugely significant sums given the size and nature of economy in Manipur.

However, beyond these adverse material consequences, the culture of bandhs as default mode of protest carries within it the potential of annihilating the very core ideals of democracy which animates and sustains the practice of protest itself. This is where protest becomes a political art. If it is in the name of the people and through invocation of democratic ideals that protests are carried out, it is only logical that those practising protest show responsibility and accountability to the people in general and even to the idea of democracy itself. Unfortunately, an analysis of the trend of bandhs in Manipur does not in any way suggest respect for such values. It may be recalled that as far back as 1997, the Supreme Court of India upheld the Kerala High Court order holding enforced bandhs as illegal and unconstitutional. Recently on 27 May 2015, Shillong High Court restrained the media from publicising any material calling for bandhs, blockades, hartals, etc. While holding bandhs to be violative of the fundamental rights to freedom of movement and right to life under Articles 19 and 21 respectively, the Court further directed the state government to authorise local administration to seek help from paramilitary forces to conduct flag marches.

Though it still remains open to debate as to whether the Supreme Court was right to declare all bandhs as outright illegal, it may also be argued that indiscriminate resort to bandhs can only inflict harm to the democratic space for protest which every citizen has to a duty to protect from being encroached by the State. Crucial to in this context is the notion of the `Public`™. If democracy is government by the people, it may be said that the Public keeps the people politically alert and constantly remind the government of its source of power. By Public here, we mean neither the active consumers in the economy nor the passive audience of social events or political performances. Instead it refers to a self-aware, critical and politically conscious people. Such a public emerges in individual desires to identify with, and belong to a people`™s cause.

It is precisely the emergence of this `Public`™ that is threatened by the very forms of protest that a myriad of groups andinstantly assembled committees choose. Protest in a democracy is not limited to demanding justice for specific grievances; it simultaneously performs the valuable function of mobilising people and building publics in the process. However even the symbolic forms of identification that are crucial to sustaining such a public begins to evaporate when in the eyes of the general masses, the causes are unable to justify the means.

In Manipur, this failure to identify with the cause is accentuated in two ways. First, more often than not, instantly formed joint action committees settle for `compromises`™ with the authorities without explaining to the public what necessitated it . Second, more worryingly, the protest-bandhs have increasingly taken ethnic and communal overtones. Taken together with cases of vandalism, there is ample ground for the government to redefine the contours of any political issue as questions of law and order and turn publics into crowds. This reversal from public to crowd robs the public of its political status and exempts the government from addressing systemic and structural injustices.

Such would be annihilation of the public `“ and if that happens, it would mean the victory of the State and the disappearance of the People!

(The writer teaches Political Science at Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi.)

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/bandhs-as-default-protest-and-the-annihilation-of-the-public/

IMPHAL, June 3: Tamenglong Autonomous District Council sitting chairman K Humaliabou has appealed to the Chief Electoral Officer to call all the presiding officers of the June 1 ADC election and questioned them `personally`™ to get the original report of the extent of gun power exercised by UG groups who intervened and disturbed the voting process during the election.

`The field reports collected by the presiding officers, ROs, POs will not give any clear account because all the reports have been forcibly manipulated by the armed groups to declare the election process peaceful,` he told media persons during a press meet at the Autonomous District Council office at Khuman Lampak today.

Humaliabou also appealed to the concerned authorities to invalidate the voting process at 3/1 Kongphung and 3/7 Piulong polling stations under Tamei sub-division as cadres of an armed outfit had started forcible proxy voting in these polling stations during the midnight of June 31, before the actual voting was to be conducted on June 1.

He further charged that the incident is unfortunate, because `Konphung, which is under Tamei sub-division, is a Congress dominated area, however, due to the forceful intervention of the armed UG group, the NPF, which has a weak base in the area, will turn out to be dominant during vote counting.`

He said that it has also come to light that the UG group even escorted the ballot boxes of 3/7 Piulong till the SDO office at Tamei.

He further claimed that out of seven polling stations in the constituency, there was no polling in one, voting was peaceful in only two polling stations while, UG cadres had captured the four remaining polling stations.

The UG group was fully and openly supporting the NPF candidate, he alleged.

Even after the end of polling, the UG cadres continued to search for Congress workers and agents, he added.

The NPF`™s claimed that the Congress party had disturbed the election process is a totally baseless allegation as the NPF had managed to capture the maximum numbers of polling stations with the help of armed militants, he continued.

There was no free and fair election in the area, he said claiming that the votes were taken and forcibly casted by the UG cadres on gun-point.

He said this is unfortunate.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/reports-from-ros-and-pos-of-adc-probably-manipulated/