MEELAL withdraws plans to make compulsory inscription of Meitei Mayek on vehicle number plates

Meetei Erol Eyek Loinasillol Apunba Lup(MEELAL) a group working for the development of Meitei script ‘Meitei Mayek’ has withdrawn its plans to make compulsory inscription of Meitei Mayek in vehicle number plates across Manipur.

On February 24, MEELAL had announced that vehicles plying in Manipur must display registration numbers in Meetei Mayek script by March, failing which action will be taken by the organisation.

Speaking to media at its office in Imphal on Thursday, MEELAL advisor Sadokpam Tomba Mangang said the organization has earlier declared that all vehicle registration number plates should be compulsorily written in Meitei Mayek by march this year.

However, the announcement had been immediately cancelled in view of the ongoing crisis in the State and other legal concerns, he added.

Following the announcement made by MEELAL on February 24, All Naga Students' Association, Manipur (ANSAM) issued a statement the following day stating that such  directive is an egregious imposition illogical in reasoning, constitutionally infirm in substance, and democratically indefensible in principle.

“It constitutes not cultural renaissance but coercive particularism. In a constitutional polity governed by the supremacy of law, no organisation may arrogate unto itself the authority to enforce the linguistic emblem of one community upon the entirety of a plural and heterogeneous society” ANSAM stated.

The student body stated that Manipur is an intricate civilisational mosaic, inhabited by numerous indigenous communities, each endowed with its own venerable linguistic heritage and cultural sovereignty.

The imposition of a singular script upon all communities is a direct affront to identity, dignity, and the constitutional guarantees safeguarding equality and cultural freedom. Such unilateral insistence subverts the federal spirit and corrodes the delicate equilibrium upon which democratic coexistence rests, the release added.

Stating that cultural affirmation must never metastasise into hegemonic imposition ANSAM stated that in case any deleterious or dire consequences arise from such ‘obdurate. insistence,’ MEELAL must bear the moral and civic responsibility for the ramifications of its unilateral action.

The association urges the Government of Manipur, in the gravest possible terms, to intervene forthwith, restrain such unconstitutional impositions, and uphold the constitutional covenant of justice, plurality, and coequal citizenship before the situation deteriorates further.

The Tribal Youth Council Manipur (TYCM) in a separate release stated that the directive should not be extended to vehicle owners belonging to tribal communities while expressing concern over MEELAL’s warning that violators would be held responsible for any untoward consequences, calling the move unacceptable to tribal communities.

The council pointed out that even the Government of India does not mandate the use of Devanagari script for vehicle registration plates nationwide.

In the month of July , 2024, All Naga Business Asscociation had issued a statement claiming that that they received numerous reports from Naga shopkeepers operating in Imphal that some executive members of the Meetei Erol Eyek Loinasillol Apunba Lup (MEELAL) had approached them, demanding to know why the Meetei Mayek script was not mentioned or written on their signboards.

The association also stated that that MEELAL members had summoned Naga shopkeepers to their office for not including the Meetei Mayek script on their signboards.

ANBA stated that such actions could lead to misunderstandings and communal tensions among the various communities living in Manipur and that such actions by MEELAL were arbitrary, unconstitutional, and amounting to mental harassment, which is against the law of the land.