After four consecutive days of curfew in Imphal, which was defied by hordes of angry young men and women who braved tear gas and lathis of the police, the situation remains very tense, especially in Imphal East where a 16 year old student, Sapam Robinhood, was killed in police firing while marching toward the Manipur Assembly demanding the extension of Inner Line Permit system to Manipur.

This is an old demand. Other states in the northeast like Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram have the Inner Line Permit system which was introduced by the British to check uncontrolled influx of outsiders beyond the inner lines of Assam inhabited by the indigenous population.

Manipur, being an independent kingdom, had its own foreigners' permit system to check the inflow of outsiders. But after Manipur merged with the Indian Union it was abolished on 18 November 1950 by chief commissioner Himayat Singh.

Soon afterwards, the decadal growth of Manipur spiked in the 1950s due to the arrival of outsiders. And the demand for a legal regime to check the demographic onslaught started. What is new now is the urgency that accompanies this demand.

Fear of the foreigner

There are new anxieties of a large demographic transition once big projects such as the Trans-Asian highway and railways become operational. Tripura, where the indigenous people are reduced to just 28% of the total population, is what is feared in Manipur.

This apprehension is especially strong amongst the Meiteis, the people who live in the valley.  Since the Meiteis are not tribals, they do not enjoy any special protection. Anyone can buy land here. As companies and outsiders come in, it is feared that there will be no more land left for the poor. This has already started as the rich are buying land in villages.

Why does Manipur need an Inner Line Permit? The demand is based on the issue of substantive equality. People who are placed differently have to be treated differently. In this case, the demand is for protecting an indigenous population. If the people of Manipur are to exist as a community, some measure of protection is required by recognising their rights over their land and resources when mega development hits them hard.

One reason is India's non-acceptance of the universal concept of indigenous peoples and its narrow definition of minorities. Only scheduled tribes are entitled to affirmative action and minorities are defined only in terms of religion. There is no category for indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities. And yet, that is what the people of the northeast are.

Belied expectations

If the people of Manipur want the permit system, the centre does not, as it sees the system as a violation of the freedom of movement of other citizens guaranteed by the Constitution. It therefore became the duty of the state government to articulate the demand for a permit system as a "reasonable restriction" to that fundamental right in public interest as provided in article 19(5) of the Constitution, which indeed is the basis of the system for Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

But the Manipur state government has not done anything of the kind. Its leadership is seen to be subservient to Delhi.  At the same time, it tends to feel it can suppress local people's uprisings using brute force. Instead of working on the protection of indigenous people from the demographic onslaught, the state government has agreed to a bill which gives additional rights to tenants and immigrant workers. There is fear that once the bill is passed, it will freeze the whole matter. That is why the youth is making such desperate attempts for an Inner Line Permit.

This was the basic attitude of the state even when the issue of rape by armed forces was doing the rounds. At that time, the only government response visible was in reports of a government agency distributing condoms to the Central Reserve Police Force.

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Babloo Loitongbam is the Executive Director of Human Rights Alert, Imphal.