Nikhil Bishnupriya Manipuri Mahasabha missive to PM Modi for correct nomenclature

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Various branches of the Nikhil Bishnupriya Manipuri Mahasabha (NBMM) from Assam, Tripura and Manipur have sent memorandum to the Prime Minister of India demanding correction of the nomenclature of the community as ‘Bishnupriya Manipuri’ which has wrongly appeared as ‘Bishnupuriya’ in Census 2001 and 2011. The memoranda were sent through the deputy commissioners, including one through the DC, Kamrup(M) in Guwahati on Thursday.

Talking to this reporter, NBMM president Anil Gautam said, “After long persuasion the Registrar General Census and Census Commissioner of India had provided a separate code structure of the community as Bishnupriya Manipuri. It was recorded as per return of the speakers for the census of 2001 and 2011. However, to our utter surprise, the basic demand was completely ignored by the authority concerned and kept the nomenclature of the language as ‘Bishnupuriya’ instead of correcting it as ‘Bishnupriya Manipuri’.”

Gautam said, “The language has been introduced at the primary stage of education in Tripura and Assam in 1995 and 2001 respectively. This apart, Prasar Bharati and Doordorshan Kendras of Silchar and Guwahati also occasionally broadcast Bishnupriya Manipuri cultural programmes through Bishnupriya Manipuri language. We feel that a conspiracy has been hatched against the Bishnupriya Manipuri community.”

The NBMM demanded the Prime Minister to take necessary steps to correct the nomenclature of the community as ‘Bishnupriya Manipuri’ and not as ‘Bishnupriya’.

Memoranda to the Prime Minister were also submitted to the deputy commissioners of Silchar, Hailakandi, Karimganj and various districts in Tripura. A memorandum each was also sent from Jiribam and Bekara in Manipur. Processions were taken out in Silchar and some other areas in the Barak Valley. Such memoranda were also sent to the PMO from New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. While submitting the memorandum to the Kamrup (M) DC in Guwahati, Gautam was accompanied by Nikhil Bishnupriya Manipuri Sahitya Parishad’s (NBMSP) Assam State Committee president DILS Lakshmindra Sinha, NBMM’s Guwahati Anchalik Committee president Pratap Chandra Sinha, NBMM working president Abirsena Sinha and NBMSP general secretary Mrinal Sinha and others.

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