Political parties endorse 'NRC first, delimitation next' stand Conclave resolves to seek postponement of Census ops

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Dec 27 : A conclave of political parties held today has resolved to seek postponement of Census operations in Manipur until and unless normalcy is  restored, IDPs are resettled at their homes/villages, normal administration is restored, free movement is restored and illegal immigrants are identified by way of updating National Register of Citizens (NRC) or a similar mecha-nism.
A political parties’ conclave on Census and Delimitation in Manipur was held today at Lamyanba Shanglen, Konung Lampak under the aegis of the Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation (JFD).
The conclave agreed that conducting census operations under the prevailing situation will not be able to reflect the demographic reality of Manipur.
If any delimitation is carried out based on in- complete and faulty census operations, democratic representation of indigenous communities will be upended, the conclave resolved.  
Incomplete census operations and delimitation based on such incomplete census operations will result in irreversible demographic and social-political consequences, and this injustice will be given a legitimacy,  the gathering agreed.
All the political parties which were present at the conclave agreed to collectively persuade the Ministry of Home Affairs to put off census operations in Mani-pur until the situation is favourable.
The conclave presided over by Campaign for JFD convenor Jeetendra Ning-omba was moderated by eminent demographer and former Head, Department of Bio-Statistics, RIMS Prof RK Narendra.
The conclave was participated by representatives of BJP, Indian National Congress (INC), Shiv Sena, RPI-A, NPP, AAP, JD-U, CPI, CPI-M, Good Governance Party and Democratic People’s Front.
They also put forth their respective party’s positions on the issue.
Campaign for JFD’s member L Ratankumar said that indigenous communities of Manipur are now facing an existential threat on account of continuous influx of migrants over the past many decades.
At present, Manipur is facing a very sensitive geopolitical crisis. At the same time, Manipur is experiencing the ripple effects of the political unrest witnessed in Myanmar and Bangladesh, he said.
Authorities have not yet succeeded in checking and containing influx of illegal immigrants from Myanmar, settlement inside Manipur, poppy plantation, manufacturing of illicit narcotic drugs and drug trafficking, he said.
Given this critical situation and the inevitable cen- sus operations and delimitation exercise mandated by the Constitution, the Campaign for JFD organised the political parties’ conclave so as to elicit their respective stands on the issue, Ratankumar said.
If census operations are carried out under the prevailing situation, unlawful elements will be legitimised and falsehoods will be presented as the truth, he said. He also pointed out the large scale discrepancies and errors detected in the last census operations.
Ratankumar said that the census data will be equally erroneous or more if census operations are carried out under the prevailing situation.
In case delimitation is done based on such erroneous census data, indigenous people will be deprived of their political rights and organised crime networks will emerge which will ultimately threaten National security, he said.