New Delhi: The Manipur assembly has passed a Bill that has made changing existing names of places in the strife-torn north-eastern state a punishable offence with an imprisonment up to three years.The passage of this Bill at the ongoing session of the assembly in the absence of all ten Kuki MLAs, including those from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), comes across as a second official move by the legislators, across party lines belonging to the Meitei community, aimed at preserving its interests.On the opening day of the Winter Session on February 28, all Meitei MLAs unanimously passed a resolution to urge the Union government to end its ongoing suspension of operations with all the Kuki armed groups, accusing them of violating ground rules and attacking Meiteis during the ethnic strife.With the approval of the Manipur Names of Places Bill, 2024, on March 4, the N. Biren Singh government has criminalised attempts made by any person to refer to some places with their own names in official statements, etc. From the instances given by the chief minister at the House, it comes across that the law was particularly aimed at stalling the Kuki community to act otherwise. For instance, the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur being referred to as Lamka by them.Chief minister Biren Singh made a specific reference to this particular example in the House on March 4, stating that Churachandpur was named after Maharaja Churachand (of Manipur who belonged to the Meitei community) in honour of his contributions made for the protection of the territorial boundary of Manipur. “He said that no one is authorised to change the name of a place or site without the consent of the authority concerned,” reported Imphal Free Press.The chief minister also mentioned use of the name ‘Lamka district’ instead of Churachandpur district in an official statement issued by the Assam Rifles during the ongoing Meitei-Kuki ethnic strife.During the ongoing tensions between the two communities, several instances came to light where attempts were made to change names on community lines, including a case of suspected hacking of the Air India’s ticketing office (ATO) at Imphal in July last year. Tickets issued to passengers at the Imphal airport were printed as ATO, Lamka.On complaints made by the Meitei passengers, MLA and son-in-law of the chief minister, R. Imo Singh, had written a letter to the Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to rectify the mistake and initiate an investigation into it immediately. Note that as of now, Kukis cannot access the Imphal airport, which is the only facility in the state providing connectivity outside of the state.“The historical hill ‘Thangjing’ was found trying to change into ‘Thangting’ and Thangjing hill as Mount Olive and a reserved forest as ‘Haokip Reserve Forest’. Even some groups produced documents regarding the ‘Haokip Reserve Forest’ which was unexpected,” the chief minister said in the House on March 4.The chief minister said any attempt by an officer found involved in the alteration of any name from the official ones would be prosecuted and “can be imprisoned up to three years and Rs 1-3 lakh (fine)”.
