Shutdown hits normal life in Manipur but has little impact in Tripura

india

Updated: Oct 16, 2019 00:05 IST

A 12-hour general strike called by several banned insurgent outfits on Tuesday in Manipur and Tripura affected normal life in the former but did not have much impact in the latter, officials said.

Coordination Committee (Cor Com), a conglomeration of proscribed underground groups in Manipur called the strike from 6 am to 6 pm on Tuesday in protest against the ‘Forced Merger’ of Manipur into Union of India in 1949.

A joint team of Alliance for Socialist Unity Kangleipak (ASUK), another conglomeration of proscribed underground groups in Manipur and National Liberation Front of Tripura also called total shutdown in Manipur and Tripura from 5 am to 5 pm on Tuesday.

Though there was no report of any untoward incident, markets and commercial establishments, banks, educational institutions in Manipur were closed during the day.

Attendance in government offices in and around Imphal was very thin as the inter-state, inter-district and other city-based public transport services also remained off the roads during the day. But the Imphal airport continued its operations as usual.

However, the shutdown didn’t have much impact in Tripura. Police said there was no report of any untoward incident during the 12-hour shutdown.

The NLFT and ASUK had jointly called for a total shutdown in Manipur and Tripura claiming that both the states had merged with India on October 15, 1949 ‘under duress.’

According to the NLFT and ASUK, Kangleipak (Manipur) and Tripura were merged with India after the merger agreement in 1949 out of ‘pure miscalculation’ and ‘unrealistic comprehension.’

The erstwhile king of Manipur became mere figurehead after installation of an elected legislature and Tripura’s queen Kanchanprabha Devi’s regency had ‘ questionable legitimacy’ after the unilateral dissolution of the council of regency.

“ .....we have become demographically outnumbered or nearly outnumbered, politically marginalized and disintegrated, economically dependent ....... National doom is staring at us viciously. Merger with India is the root-cause of all these national maladies,” NLFT and ASUK said in a statement.