GUWAHATI: Kuki-Zo organisations in Manipur slammed Wednesday BJP’s decision to appoint Nemcha Kipgen, one of 10 MLAs representing the community, as deputy CM of the new state govt, saying it “undermines” their campaign for a separate homeland with Union territory status.The influential Kuki Zo Council (KZC) said Kipgen’s inclusion represented what it called “defiance of a collective mandate” not to be part of govt until Centre acknowledges the community’s long-standing demand for administrative separation from the Meitei-majority Imphal Valley.“KZC further clarifies that any Kuki-Zo MLA who chooses to disregard the collective decision taken at the Lungthu meeting will be doing so in their individual capacity, and KZC shall not be held accountable for the consequences arising from such unilateral decisions,” the council said.A resolution adopted at the “Lungthu meeting” in Guwahati on Jan 13 – involving KZC, armed outfits currently in ceasefire with the govt and Kuki-Zo MLAs – states that the community’s participation in governance would be subject to an unambiguous written commitment from the state and the Union govts to create a separate administration with a legislature.“The Kuki-Zo people have been forcibly and physically separated by the Meiteis, and therefore have legitimately demanded a separate administration from the Meitei govt…Under these circumstances, it is neither logical nor acceptable for the Kuki-Zo people to join a govt formed with those from whom we have been violently separated,” KZC said.It urged all 10 Kuki-Zo legislators – seven from BJP, two from Kuki People’s Alliance and one Independent – to “respect the collective will, sentiments and aspirations” of their people. During the ethnic violence that erupted in May 2023, these MLAs had jointly written to the Union govt to create a separate administration for the state’s Kuki-dominant hill districts.
