CoTU Accuses Dy CM Losii Dikho of ‘Political Double Standards’ Over Nemcha Kipgen

The Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), Sadar Hills, has launched a counterattack on Manipur Deputy Chief Minister Losii Dikho, accusing him of indulging in “political double standards” and selectively criticising his Cabinet colleague Nemcha Kipgen while ignoring violence allegedly suffered by the Kuki-Zo community.

CoTU said Dikho should understand that his position as Deputy Chief Minister alongside Kipgen was a political balancing arrangement by the BJP leadership at the Centre, aimed at emphasising the participation of Kuki-Zo MLAs in the formation of the popular government.

The committee was responding to Dikho’s remarks about Kipgen in an interview with several media outlets.

CoTU credited Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen with intervening in the detention of 21 Kacha Naga/Tangkhul individuals by distressed villagers in Litan, resulting in their release.

The organisation alleged that negotiations over the Litan crisis failed after the Tangkhuls rejected Dikho’s intervention, subsequently leading to the killing of two Kuki-Zo farmers, allegedly by NSCN-IM cadres.

CoTU further accused Dikho and Naga legislator Awangbow Newmai of failing to apply the same standards of condemnation to violence when members of their own community were allegedly involved.

“Loss of lives, properties or destruction of habitations is condemnable by all civilised society regardless of difference in ethnicity, culture and ways of life,” CoTU said, while accusing the two leaders of supporting preferential political treatment for their own community.

The tribal body also invoked a series of alleged attacks on Kuki-Zo civilians.

According to CoTU, three Kuki-Zo church pastors were killed on May 13, 2026, allegedly by Kacha Tangkhul-led NSCN-IM and ZUF (Kamson) cadres. It further alleged that three civilians were killed at Loibol barely a month later and that 19 Kuki-Zo villages were subsequently razed and uprooted across Noney, Kamjong, Ukhrul and Tadubi.

CoTU alleged that political leaders from the Naga community had failed to adequately condemn or discourage such incidents but were quick to raise objections when members of their own community faced similar consequences.

The organisation also claimed that Dikho and Newmai were operating under “political duress” from what it described as Kacha Tangkhul supremacism, and urged them to refrain from becoming “stooges” of the Kacha Tangkhul community from Ukhrul and Kamjong.

In a pointed warning, CoTU said the Naga legislators’ opposition to the present government, without demanding the removal of incumbent Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen, amounted to a political “charade”.

It said such a position could not be equated with the Kuki-Zo MLAs’ departure from former Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s government.

The CoTU statement comes amid continuing political tensions and strained relations among communities in the hill districts, with the organisation maintaining that elected representatives must adopt an even-handed approach to violence and public grievances rather than pursue what it described as community-based political interests.