COCOMI gears up for special status campaign

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Dec 22: The Coordination Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has declared that it would launch a mass civil movement demanding the Government of India to grant special status to Manipur.
Speaking to media persons at the Lamphelpat office of UCM today, COCOMI coordinator Sunil Karam pointed out that many communities have been living together in Manipur since ages.
However, some communities have been repeatedly challenging the integrity of Manipur in pursuit of their ethno-centric and diverse political aspirations, Sunil said.
COCOMI has been exploring exhaustively for a viable means to achieve the common goal of peaceful co-existence, collective development and uniform sharing of rights and opportunities by all the communities instead of pursuing and promoting ethno-centric and communal agendas, and the committee decided on demanding special status for Manipur to achieve the same goal, Sunil Karam said.
To kick-start the campaign, a people’s convention on special status for Manipur would be held at the City Convention Centre at 11 am on December 26, he said.
He then appealed to all community leaders, academicians, intellectuals, CSO leaders, journalists, senior citizens and legal experts to participate and share their views and opinions at the convention.
To a query regarding the connotation of the special status, COCOMI assistant coordinator Longjam Ratankumar said that special status broadly refers to political autonomy but the exact definition has not been worked out yet.
When one talks about special status, historical, cultural and social aspects will definitely come in the picture.  
“Even though we broadly refer special status to political autonomy, its building blocks and structural elements would be determined based on the views and ideas shared by experts and the public”, Ratankumar said.
COCOMI is organising a people’s convention on December 26 to give a definite shape to the term ‘special status’, he said.
The special status as envisaged by the COCOMI encompasses all communities of Manipur and it is aimed at securing a collective and dignified future for the whole State, Ratankumar said.
To another query, Sunil Karam said that they would meet the Union Home Minister if they are invited and resolutions adopted at the December 26 people’s convention would be placed before the Union Home Minister.
Notably, it has been already reported that Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to visit the State on December