Six NE rebel groups call total shutdown

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Jan 23 : As many as six North East insurgent groups including KYKL, KCP, Hynniutrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), National Liberation Front of Twipra (NLFT), Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) and People’s Democratic Council of Karbi Longri (PDCK) have called a total shutdown in the entire WESEA region from 6 am to 6 pm of January 26 in order to stop or hinder ritual celebration of the 71st Republic Day of India in the region.
A joint statement issued by the six militant groups alleged that celebration of the Indian Republic Day in WESEA is purely anachronistic imposition as citizens of this region are not allowed to enjoy republicanism  in the true sense of the term.
The so-called republican Constitution of India has failed to actually entitle the peoples of this region to republican liberty, alleged the joint statement.
Indian rule in the region is theoretically republican, but in reality, deep-rooted oppression of the indigenes is prevalent, which is quite contradictory to republicanism.
“We, the peoples of the WESEA region, have become oppressed peoples. On the top of this, we are being subjugated under an alien rule, the fact of which condemns us to be categorized as the colonized. Celebration of the Republic Day of the colonizer Nation by the oppressed and colonized peoples is nothing less than wilfully participating in their own oppression”, the militant groups alleged.
Such irrational behaviour of supporting their own subjugation, as shown frequently by the colonized peoples, is possible if the colonizers are successful in gaining control over the political consciousness of the oppressed, that is, in creating false consciousness in the minds of the latter.
“It is a bounden duty of the liberation forces to promote the development of objective political consciousness of the struggling people. To inculcate the minds of our people with true political consciousness, it is imperative to ban such imposed celebrations in our region”, they asserted.
While appealing to all the peoples of the region to shun such celebrations orchestrated to legitimize the alleged foreign rule, the militant outfits added that religious activities and emergency services would be exempted from the purview of the total shutdown.