The call for NRC first, census later Politics of population
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The stand of the people is clear. Weed out the illegal immigrants before the census is conducted. In as much as the stand of the people is clear, it also stands that the Election Commission of India has already rolled out the process for the census, with Manipur set to go in for the house listing exercise from September 1 this year. This is where the arguments put forward by those opposed to the headcount before weeding out the illegals becomes significant. Looking at the reality the house listing call is far fetched. How can house listing be conducted when thousands continue to live in relief centres ? Doesn’t the very idea of house listing run counter to the existence of ‘buffer zones’ with many Kuki bodies clinging to the line, ‘respect the buffer zones’ to counter the call for free movement ? How does the ECI intend to deal with this reality ? No answer so far and in as much as the call for an exercise to weed out the illegals before going in for the headcount is getting more and more vocal each day, the State Government has been quiet on this. The only thing that has come from the side of Imphal was when Chief Minister Y Khemchand talked abut the Special Intensive Revision of voters, to detect bogus voters. The Government may believe that SIR is enough to identify and keep out bogus voters but can this be taken to mean that it is synonymous with weeding out the illegal immigrants ? Primarily SIR is about updating the voters list and an exercise taken up to delete names of already deceased persons from the list of eligible voters. It is not an exercise on citizenship. Or if this exercise is good enough to identify and help in the process of weeding out the illegals, then its finer points need to be explained well to the people who matter, the people who stand to lose the most due to false headcounts. And delimitation is going to be based on the outcome of the headcount. This is where the Government need to consider the growing call for the updation of the NRC, before the census is conducted. And in case census is conducted without weeding out the illegals and delimitation follows, then one can imagine which community would be the first to be negatively impacted, the Nagas. The valley will lose some seats, but it is more likely that it is not the Nagas which would be in a position to garner the increased number of MLAs in the hill Constituencies. This is where the merit of the stand of Naga organisations like the UNC which have called for an NRC should be acknowledged.
Census is primarily a headcount. Apart from counting the number of people, it reflects population growth and many other key aspects of the lives of the citizens and has a direct bearing on the representative system of Government. And representa- tives or the seats they represent are worked out according to population. This is where census or the headcount has a direct bearing on political representations and this is where the merit in the call of NRC first, census later should be noted. As a young researcher put it so clearly in a write up and which was also reproduced by The Sangai Express last year, in the first Territorial Council election (1957-1962), out of 32 MLAs, the Nagas had 4 MLAs, 1 Paite MLA and 1 Thadou Kuki MLA. Then in the first Manipur Legislative Assembly (1972-1973), out of 60 MLAs the number of Naga MLAs was 13 while there were 6 Kuki-Chin MLAs while in the second Assembly (1974-1979) the number of Kuki-Chin MLAs rose to 8 and the same trend continued in the third Assembly (1980-1985) wherein the number of Naga MLAs was 10 and the number of Kuki-Chin MLAs shot up to 9. Now, as of 2026 it is 10 each from the 2022 Assembly election. The increase in the number of Kuki-Chin MLAs may perhaps be best seen in the surge of Kuki villages which rocketed by 303 percent, increasing from 179 villages in 1969 to 721 in 2023. This is about Kangpokpi district and no reason not to believe that the same trend can be seen at Tengnoupal and Churachandpur too. The figures quoted here should be seen in the context of the call, ‘NRC first, census later’.
Census is primarily a headcount. Apart from counting the number of people, it reflects population growth and many other key aspects of the lives of the citizens and has a direct bearing on the representative system of Government. And representa- tives or the seats they represent are worked out according to population. This is where census or the headcount has a direct bearing on political representations and this is where the merit in the call of NRC first, census later should be noted. As a young researcher put it so clearly in a write up and which was also reproduced by The Sangai Express last year, in the first Territorial Council election (1957-1962), out of 32 MLAs, the Nagas had 4 MLAs, 1 Paite MLA and 1 Thadou Kuki MLA. Then in the first Manipur Legislative Assembly (1972-1973), out of 60 MLAs the number of Naga MLAs was 13 while there were 6 Kuki-Chin MLAs while in the second Assembly (1974-1979) the number of Kuki-Chin MLAs rose to 8 and the same trend continued in the third Assembly (1980-1985) wherein the number of Naga MLAs was 10 and the number of Kuki-Chin MLAs shot up to 9. Now, as of 2026 it is 10 each from the 2022 Assembly election. The increase in the number of Kuki-Chin MLAs may perhaps be best seen in the surge of Kuki villages which rocketed by 303 percent, increasing from 179 villages in 1969 to 721 in 2023. This is about Kangpokpi district and no reason not to believe that the same trend can be seen at Tengnoupal and Churachandpur too. The figures quoted here should be seen in the context of the call, ‘NRC first, census later’.