CIRCA observes Natl Repentance Day

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Sep 21: As done every year since 2016, the Coalition for Indigenes Right Campaign (CIRCA) observed National Repentance Day at Eastern Students’ Club, Nongmeibung in commemoration of the day Maharaja Bodhachandra was invited to Shillong by the Government of India and allegedly forced to sign the Manipur Merger Agreement under duress.
CIRCA president Thokchom Somorendro, vice-president Longjam Ratan, IKAL president Oinam Bimola, Eastern Students’ Club president Nongthombam Indrajit and WASDEV president RK Tharaksana attended the function as presidium members which was held in adherence to the COVID-19 SOP.
Many speakers who addressed the function opined that most of the major issues and challenges plaguing the State today have their roots in the Manipur Merger Agreement signed on September 21, 1949.
They went on to claim that all these issues and challenges can be resolved when Manipur can regain its pre-merger political status under the purview of the Instrument of Accession signed on August 11, 1947.
As per the Instrument of Accession, only defence, communication and external affairs would be in the hands of the Dominion of India while all other aspects of administration would be in the hands of the Government of Manipur,  they said.
Following the lapse of the British colonial rule in the aftermath of the Second World War, Maharaja Bodhachandra went to the Kangla on August 14, 1947 to hoist the Manipur National flag.
On seeing a white flag and the Indian National flag kept there together, the king went back to Kangla and hoisted a flag embossed with the symbol of Pakhangba at the royal palace. It was the same Pakhangba-embossed flag that Maharaja Bodhachandra’s successors unfurled every year, Somorendro said.
He said that observation of the National Repentance Day is a part of CIRCA’s endeavour to understand a chapter of Manipur’s history without any ambiguity.
As Maharaja Bodhachandra was allegedly forced to sign the Manipur Merger Agreement under duress without any consent of the State Assembly elected through adult franchise, the Manipur Merger Agreement was not actually a merger agreement but a treaty of accession, he claimed.