Kukis in Delhi Stage Protest at Jantar Mantar, Submits Memo to PM Seeking Separate Administration

Kukis in the national capital on Saturday (Oct. 25) held a protest demanding a separate administration for the Kukis in Manipur.

The protest was organized under the banner of the Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO), Delhi & NCR, at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi.

Scores of members of the Kuki community in the National Capital Region gathered at Jantar Mantar to voice and raise their demand for a separate administration. They also expressed their opposition to the rumors about installing a new popular government in Manipur by the month of November. They stated that a “popular government” would be a forged justice, reiterating that true justice lies only in granting separate administration to the Kukis.

During the protest, the Delhi & NCR unit of KSO also released a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding a separate administration for the Kuki community in Manipur and opposing the proposed formation of a popular government in the state.

In the memorandum, KSO Delhi & NCR sought urgent justice and a separate administrative arrangement for the Kuki-Zo community in Manipur, citing two years of unrelenting ethnic violence, displacement, and institutional neglect.

The memorandum, signed by Paojakhup Guite, President of KSO Delhi & NCR, expressed the community’s “profound grief and unyielding sense of injustice” over the continuing humanitarian catastrophe that has unfolded since 3 May 2023, when large-scale violence erupted across Manipur.

“For more than two years now,” the memorandum states, “the Kuki-Zo people have lived through an unending nightmare—marked by targeted killings, burning of villages, desecration of churches, and forced displacement.”

According to KSO Delhi & NCR, over 220 lives have been lost, and more than 60,000 people remain displaced across makeshift relief camps in Manipur and neighboring states. Thousands continue to endure hunger, trauma, and humiliation, while many children are deprived of education and healthcare.

The organisation describes the ongoing tragedy as “a painful testament to administrative collapse and systemic discrimination.” Despite substantial digital evidence, eyewitness accounts, and even public confessions identifying principal perpetrators, justice has remained elusive.

“The silence of justice,” the memorandum notes, “has become deafening. The promise of constitutional equality feels increasingly hollow for a community left to fend for itself under a state government that has failed to protect its very existence.”

KSO Delhi & NCR asserts that the continuing subjugation of the Kuki-Zo people under a majoritarian-controlled state administration has rendered coexistence impossible. The call for a separate administration—with its own legislature— is described not as a demand for secession, but as “a desperate cry for survival, a political necessity to preserve human dignity, restore faith in governance, and reaffirm belonging within the Union of India.”

Key Demands Highlighted in the Memorandum

1. Justice and Accountability:
   The Kuki-Zo community calls for independent and transparent investigations into the atrocities committed since May 2023. The memorandum demands that special judicial or quasi-judicial mechanisms be established to ensure credible prosecutions and to restore public confidence in the rule of law.
2. Separate Administration with Legislature:
   Citing the complete breakdown of trust in the existing state apparatus, KSO Delhi & NCR urges the Union Government to create a separate administrative setup—preferably a Union Territory with its own legislature—to ensure safety, self-governance, and equitable development for the Kuki-Zo people.
3. Safeguard Against Forged Justice:
   Until a fair political settlement is achieved, the organisation warns that any continuation of the present state administration under a majoritarian structure “must be deemed unacceptable,” as it perpetuates inequality and endangers minority communities.
4. Humanitarian Relief and Rehabilitation:
   The memorandum appeals for immediate intervention by the Central Government to ensure dignified living conditions, adequate compensation, livelihood opportunities, and unrestricted access to education for displaced families and students.
5. Maintaining the Buffer Zone:
   KSO Delhi & NCR further stresses the importance of maintaining existing buffer zones between Kuki-Zo and Meitei-inhabited areas to prevent renewed conflict.

"Any premature withdrawal or alteration of the buffer arrangement,” it cautions, “without an agreed political framework, would risk reigniting violence and undermining fragile peace efforts.”

A Plea for Justice, Not Privilege

In its concluding remarks, the organisation reiterates its faith in India’s constitutional ideals but warns that continued inaction could “fracture that faith beyond repair.”

“Hon’ble Prime Ministerji,” the letter appeals, “our community stands wounded but resolute. The Kuki-Zo people still believe in the idea of India—a just, inclusive, and humane nation. Yet, the reality we endure in Manipur reflects abandonment.”

The memorandum frames the crisis not as a regional or ethnic issue but as a moral and constitutional challenge to the Republic itself.

“We do not seek privilege,” the statement concludes, “only the fairness and dignity that the Constitution guarantees to every citizen. Let the Kuki-Zo people not remain exiles in their ancestral land. May your government restore to our people the most sacred of assurances—the right to live without fear and to govern ourselves in peace within the great Union of India, the statement said.