Imphal: The Congress will not oppose the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur if the exercise is decoupled from the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from the Inner Manipur parliamentary constituency A. Bimol Akoijam told ThePrint Friday.
Akoijam’s statement comes at a time there has been a concerted push from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to corner the Congress on the question of implementing the NRC in Manipur where an ethnic conflict has refused to die down even after eleven months.
In an interview to ThePrint, Akoijam, an associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of Social Sciences, said that on NRC, the reservations of the Congress high command, particularly that of Rahul Gandhi, stem from the concern that comes with linking it with the CAA.
“If the NRC in itself (is concerned), I don’t think anybody will have any problem. That is why the Congress party supported it in 2003. The state unit has endorsed (assembly) resolutions on this one. People are deliberately trying to create an impression (that the Congress is against the NRC),” Akoijam said.
In August 2022, the Manipur Legislative Assembly passed a resolution demanding the implementation of the NRC to identify illegal immigrants and deport them. Last month, the assembly passed another resolution, reaffirming the previous one.
But, the five Congress MLAs had walked out before the resolution was passed, prompting the BJP to claim that the Congress was against the NRC. BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh is among the BJP leaders who have attacked the Congress over the issue.
The Congress state unit sought to clarify, saying its legislators walked out not opposing the NRC, but the speaker’s refusal to hold discussions on a wider set of agendas, including the NRC.
The entire episode once again laid bare the Congress’s difficulty in balancing the concerns of Northeast’s indigenous communities that largely support the idea of the NRC and oppose the CAA, while also allaying fears of large sections of Muslims who are opposed to both.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had posted on ‘X’ (then Twitter) on 16 December, 2019, “The CAA & NRC are weapons of mass polarisation unleashed by fascists on India.”
Akoijam told ThePrint that the Congress had, in fact, supported the NRC in 2003 when it was introduced as part of the CAA brought about by the BJP-led NDA government. He emphasised that there is a “need to address this issue of illegal immigrants and who is a citizen and not a citizen”.
However, Akoijam, who specialises in identity politics and conflict, said that one also needs to be mindful of the complications that may arise out of the NRC exercise like in Assam where there is no clarity on how to treat those identified as illegal immigrants.
“That there are international dimensions. Once you identify these people, how do you want to treat them? Can you really push them to other countries? One should be aware of these issues. But there is definitely a need to check illegal immigrants and to distinguish who is a citizen and who is not, so my position on the NRC is very clear.”
Akoijam added that he also shares the concerns of the Congress high command regarding the CAA as the people “have this suspicion that it might lead to the victimisation of a particular community”.
Moreover, people in the Northeast are also concerned about the scope offered by the CAA to those identified as Bangladeshi Hindus under the NRC to settle in India. “It is going to affect India’s Northeast far more than any other place in the country.”
Other than the NRC, the demand of the Meitei civil society groups that the community be granted the status of Scheduled Tribe (ST) has also emerged as a major talking point ahead of the polls in Manipur.
The renewed thrust on this demand is significant as Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that an order, “given in haste”, of the Manipur High Court directing the state government to consider Meiteis as STs had acted as a spark for the violence. In February this year, the high court modified the order, deleting the contentious portion.
Akoijam said the demand was essentially arising out of a “legitimate concern” of the Meiteis regarding their “existential threat”. The Meiteis feel that the ST status would act as a constitutional safeguard in this regard, said the Congress candidate.
“But I will not be very crass or brash about this position and say I don’t give a damn about what my other fellow people feel about it,” Akoijam said, stressing that the tribal Kuki community, which is strongly opposed to the Meitei demand for ST status, will have to be brought on board through dialogue. “You cannot be bulldozing it over them.”
“We need to talk to them and convince them, and they also need to understand as fellow citizens the genuine concerns of the Meitei community and that some of their (Kuki) concerns may not be factually correct,” Akoijam said, adding that the Nagaland model where tribes are classified as advanced and backward could be one option.
Asserting that the writ of the state has come under threat in Manipur, Akoijam said for peace to be restored, it was imperative that justice “must be done to all sections of the society”.
“There cannot be no peace with justice. Meiteis have suffered also, great injustices have been done,” he said.
Manipur will vote on 19 and 26 April. The Inner Manipur seat, which is scheduled to go to the polls in the first phase, is currently held by BJP MP and Union minister Ranjan Kumar Rajkumar. Akoijam is pitted against Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh of the BJP.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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