No Sangai Fest until resettlement, say IDPs

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Oct 30: Close on the heels of the call made by the Committee on Protection of Meitei Victims (CoPMeV) to all the IDPs to boycott the Manipur Sangai Festival 2025, IDPs have appealed to the Government not to hold the Sangai Festival until each one of them displaced by the violent crisis which erupted on May 3, 2023 are resettled at their original places.
Speaking to media persons at Manipur Press Club      here today on behalf of the apex body of Meitei IDPs, Meitei Council Moreh (MCM) Secretary Leishang-them Brojendro said that one cannot claim there is peace in Manipur now.
It would be wrong for the Government to hold Sangai Festival just to project a peaceful image of Manipur without understanding the wretched conditions under which tens of thousands of IDPs have been living for the past two years and a half, Brojendro said.
The IDPs have been living in miserable and shameful conditions at relief camps and with relatives. When there is a serious medical problem among the Meiteis and if they must go outside the State, they must travel by air incurring heavy expenditures for there is no other option, he said.
He also appealed to all the CSOs to support the stand of IDPs against holding Sangai Festival under the present situation.
“The time is not right for holding the Sangai Festival. Let us celebrate Manipur Sangai Festival on a much grander scale when the protracted crisis is resolved and the IDPs have resettled at their homes”, Brojendro said.
He said that the IDPs would be constrained to launch strong agitation together with CSOs if the Government decides to go ahead with the Manipur Sangai Festival 2025.
Churachandpur Meitei United Committee co-convenor Naba Ningthoujam said that the press meet was organised jointly by the Committee on Protection of Meitei Victims, Moreh; Meitei Council Moreh, Apex Committee of Victim Villages of Imphal East, Kangpokpi, Motbung and Saparmeina.
Even though the Government made a bold announcement that the IDPs taking refuge in relief camps would be resettled at their homes in three phases by December 2025, no concrete step has been taken up till date for the resettlement of IDPs, Naba Ningthoujam said.
Meiteis are still denied access to National Highways within their own homeland, Manipur, he said.  
Even though violent clashes have ceased, it would be grossly wrong to assume there is peace in Manipur, he said.
One can say there is peace in Manipur only after the IDPs have been resettled at their homes and they can lead a peaceful life, Naba asserted.
Apex Committee of Meitei Victims, Imphal East member Koijam Sarat remarked that the plan to hold Sangai Festival is an attempt by New Delhi to project a wrong image of Manipur.
The festival is aimed at projecting an image that there is normalcy in Manipur, Sarat said.
On behalf of all the IDPs whose houses had been burnt down by Kukis, he appealed to the Government  not to hold the Sangai Festival this year.
He also appealed to the Government to translate its announcement of resettling IDPs in three phases by December this year into action without any further delay.