IMPHAL — Manipur’s proposed National Register of Citizens has moved from Assembly assurances to a confrontation over paperwork, with the Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation pressing ahead with its agitation after failing to secure a formal order on the 1951 base year.
The JFD met Home Minister K. Govindas Konthoujam on Friday, but the organisation said the meeting produced no firm commitment to formally notify 1951 as the base year for the NRC exercise. The group had set September 10 as its deadline for the government to obtain a formal assurance from the Centre, and began its planned agitation from September 11 after that deadline passed.
The dispute is unusual because the government and the JFD are not actually divided over the year itself. Govindas told the Manipur Assembly on September 7 that 1951 would be used as the base year, while also stating that the state would have to pursue the matter with the Centre because Manipur cannot implement an NRC independently without Central approval.
The JFD is demanding that the position be converted into a formal government order, backed by the Centre, along with a clear schedule for the NRC exercise. Its agitation excludes essential services including medical care, electricity, water supply, agriculture, courts, post offices and banks, keeping the pressure focused on government administration.
The 1951 baseline is politically significant because it would establish a much earlier historical reference point for the proposed NRC. Assam’s NRC exercise used 1971 as its cut-off framework, while Manipur’s proposed baseline goes back another 20 years. The issue has become closely linked to longstanding concerns over migration, citizenship records and demographic change in the state. The JFD’s demand also comes against the backdrop of earlier Assembly resolutions supporting an NRC and the state government’s efforts to collect historical records required for the exercise.
Govindas told the Assembly that 24,475 illegal immigrants had been detected, of whom 14,992 had been pushed back, according to figures placed before the House.
The immediate dispute is therefore not over whether Manipur wants 1951. The state government has already stated that position in the Assembly. The JFD is demanding that the position be formally documented and backed by the Centre before the NRC process moves ahead.
1951 is already on the Assembly record. The fight now is over whether the Centre will put its authority behind the decision in writing.
