{"id":272283,"date":"2025-04-02T15:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/former-manipur-chief-minister-biren-singh-raises-alarm-over-refugee-settlements-in-manipur\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T15:00:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T15:00:06","slug":"former-manipur-chief-minister-biren-singh-raises-alarm-over-refugee-settlements-in-manipur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/former-manipur-chief-minister-biren-singh-raises-alarm-over-refugee-settlements-in-manipur\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Manipur chief minister Biren Singh raises alarm over refugee settlements in Manipur"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Guwahati: Former Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh racked up the refugee issue. Singh claimed that thousands of refugees had been settled in Manipur even before it attained full-fledged statehood.<\/p>\n

Citing official records, he asserted that authorities were aware of this development as early as the late 1960s and early 70s.<\/p>\n

Singh in a post in X stated, \u201cIs Manipur a Dumping Ground for Refugees from the Very Beginning? Amid all the political noise and distractions that often cloud our public discourse, we must not lose sight of the core issue, one that has been quietly shaping Manipur\u2019s reality for decades. It\u2019s hard not to feel a deep sense of frustration when we look back at what has unfolded in Manipur over the decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201c Official records show that even before we became a full-fledged state, thousands of refugees were settled here with the knowledge of the authorities at the time. As early as the late 1960s and early 70s, documents reveal the presence of over 1,500 families who had crossed over and were provided assistance for rehabilitation. This wasn\u2019t some isolated event. There were multiple letters from MPs, government departments, and refugee associations, all pointing to the presence of a large number of refugees in Manipur. One such letter, written by Paokai Haokip, then Member of Parliament from Manipur, addressed to K.C. Pant, Minister of State for Home Affairs, explicitly acknowledged the presence of over 1,500 refugee families who had already been settled in Manipur by 1967. \u201c<\/p>\n

Singh said, \u201cHis correspondence is just one among several that confirm how deeply rooted and long-standing this issue is. What happened to those families? How were they integrated? How many generations have grown since then? These questions have never been fully addressed in the public domain. Instead, the issue has remained largely unspoken, even as the demographic structure of the state evolved quietly over the years. It\u2019s important to ask whether there were legal mechanisms in place to ensure these individuals remained in refugee status. Were they eventually granted full rights? Were they added to electoral rolls? Were they extended benefits meant for indigenous communities? These are not small matters, they touch the core of our identity, our social balance, and the direction we\u2019re heading in as a society.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The former chief minister added, \u201c What\u2019s even more disheartening is the backlash faced by anyone who dares to raise these legitimate concerns. The moment the issue is mentioned, labels are quickly thrown around. Ironically, had we stayed silent, we might have been seen as agreeable or unproblematic. But silence is no longer an option. We cannot afford to watch quietly as a historical issue with far-reaching consequences continues to shape our present and our future. It is time to revisit this chapter and not to assign blame, but to understand what happened, reflect on its implications, and chart a fair and balanced path forward. From my experience in active politics and high office, I understand the weight it carries to a representative of the people. It\u2019s easy to go with the tide, but true responsibility lies in standing firm on facts. We owe it to our people to be truthful, defend their dignity, and forward-looking. That\u2019s what it means to be a statesman, not just a politician.\u201dThe Manipur Government formed Cabinet Sub-Committee (CSC) on Identification of Illegal Immigrants has found that around 2187 illegal immigrants have taken shelter in Manipur following the military Junta taking over in Myanmar.
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Guwahati: Former Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh racked up the refugee issue. Singh claimed that thousands of refugees had been settled in Manipur even before it attained full-fledged statehood. Citing official records, he asserted that authorities were aware of this development as early as the late 1960s and early 70s. Singh in a post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/118783427.cms","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[602],"tags":[209045,4038,40945,209040,302,209042,209047,6550,209044,149878,209039,2124,209046,506,11330,209043,209041,17987,347],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272285,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272283\/revisions\/272285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}