CorCom calls general strike on Oct 15

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Oct 11: The CorCom has called a general strike all over Manipur (Kangleipak) on the ‘National Black Day’ (October 15) from 6 am to 6 pm.
A statement issued by the CorCom publicity committee appealed to all the people to observe the National Black Day in complete manner by suspending all normal daily activities during the general strike hours including trade and commerce, games and sports, movement on public roads and all forms of entertainment programmes.
Medical services, emergency services, media and religious activities would be exempted from the purview of the general strike. 
After the lapse of British paramountcy, and when India did not have a Constitution of its own, Manipur had drafted its own Constitution, election was held and an elected Government was formed.
Under the Manipur Constitution Act 1947, a democratic election based on universal adult franchise was held in August 1948. Subsequently, a 54-member independent Manipur Legislative Assembly was elected.
King Bodhachandra opened the first Manipur Legislative Assembly on October 18, 1948 and the responsibility of State administration was handed over to the Chief Minister and his council of Ministers, said CorCom.
But the following year, Bodhachandra was called to Shillong and he was kept there under house arrest by the Government of India. The Government of India forced the king to sign Manipur Merger Agreement there under duress, threats and all kinds of coercion on September 21, 1949.
Later Manipur was taken within the Indian Union forcibly on October 15, 1949 without consent of the people and the elected Government which was already there, the CorCom recounted. Thus Manipur which existed as an independent Nation in South East Asia for thousands of years was reduced to the humiliating status of a district within the Indian Union.
Since the time of the deceitful merger till date, people of Manipur have been opposing the Indian rule and they have been fighting a war of liberation, said CorCom.
Several conferences, conclaves, seminars, workshops and public meetings held across the State at different points of time unanimously resolved that the Manipur Merger Agreement is invalid from legal perspective and it was not merger but annexation, alleged the CorCom.
Now it has been 70 years since India ‘annexed’ Manipur soon after a democratic Government was set up in the State. During these 70 years, GoI has been suppressing the people of Manipur politically, economically and culturally, it alleged.
At the same time, Government of India has been following a policy of population invasion with diabolic objective to render the indigenous communities minority in their own homeland and ultimately exterminate them, it further alleged.
The death or survival of all the indigenous communities would be determined by the ongoing liberation movement, it said while appealing to all the people to join the liberation movement.