Mass rally in Ukhrul condemns scrapping of FMR
DIMAPUR, APRIL 3 (MExN): Thousands of Nagas from across Manipur gathered in Ukhrul on April 2 to protest the Government of India’s decision to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and to oppose the construction of border fencing along the Indo-Myanmar border, which cuts through Naga-inhabited areas.
Organized by the Tangkhul Naga Long and Tangkhul Frontal Organisations under the aegis of the United Naga Council (UNC), the mass rally drew an estimated 15,000 people. Demonstrators, including representatives from the Naga Hoho, the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), the Global Naga Forum, ANSAM, and the Naga Women Union, converged at Ukhrul Headquarters following simultaneous processions from Dungrei Junction and Kharasom Junction.
Addressing the crowd, Professor Rosemary Dzüvichü, Co-Convenor of the Global Naga Forum, condemned the FMR’s removal as “a calculated move to suffocate the Naga people.”
“The abrupt scrapping of the FMR is not about ‘national security’ or ‘controlling illegal migration,’ as New Delhi claims,” she said. “It is a deliberate act to suffocate the Naga people, to cut us off from our own kin, and to assert absolute control over every aspect of our lives.”
She said that both physical and digital restrictions were part of a larger project to isolate and control the Naga population. “The imposition of biometric data entry at our border areas by the Assam Rifles is yet another insidious mechanism of surveillance, control, and long-term demographic engineering,” she said. “Fences do not bring security—they bring deeper occupation. We must reject these measures with absolute clarity, for they are the tools of an occupying force seeking to normalize its rule over our ancestral lands.”
Invoking historical parallels, she likened India’s actions to the politics of enclosure employed by empires to subjugate indigenous peoples. “This is India’s Pharaoh moment,” she said. “Just as ancient empires enclosed lands, restricted movement, and used deceitful treaties to subjugate indigenous peoples, so too does the Indian state seek to enclose and isolate the Naga nation.”
“If we do not resist now, the next generation will inherit nothing but a history of subjugation,” she said. “Our resistance must be collective, our voice must be one… We will not bow. We will not be silenced. And we will never be erased.”
Other speakers at the rally included Leishiyo Keishing and Khashim Vashum, MLAs of 43-Phungyar and 45-Chingai Assembly Constituencies, respectively; UNC President N.G. Lorho; NPMHR Secretary General Neingolu Krome; and Naga Hoho Vice President David Boyes.
According to a report by Ukhrul Times, the rally concluded with the submission of a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the Deputy Commissioner of Ukhrul. The memorandum demanded immediate restoration of the FMR and called for a halt to the border fencing, warning that it would “sever centuries-old socio-cultural, traditional and economic ties of the Naga people.”
The Ukhrul Times report also noted that protesters carried placards reading, “Stop fencing through Naga homeland,” “We are not illegal immigrants,” and “Our borders are not your lines.”
