48-hour Manipur Bandh Disrupts Normal Life
The strike coincides with the start of the self-enumeration phase of Census 2027 (August 17–31), with the main house-listing operations scheduled from September 1 to 30. Protests have grown in recent days, with women vendors from Khwairamband Ima Keithel staging sit-ins, students holding rallies, and demonstrators earlier disrupting census training programmes. Two students were injured in police action during protests on Monday
Guwahati: A 48-hour general strike called by the Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation (JFD) disrupted normal life across Manipur’s five valley districts on Tuesday, as student and civil society groups intensified their demand for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) with 1951 as the base year before the 2027 Census operations.
The bandh, which began at midnight on Monday (August 17), saw markets, educational institutions and public transport remain shut in Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal, Kakching and Bishnupur. Government offices recorded thin attendance, while some private vehicles continued to ply. Strike enforcers blocked roads with bamboo poles and stone boulders in several areas. At places such as Athokpam in Thoubal, protesters burnt tyres and raised slogans of “No NRC, No Census.”
The shutdown had little impact in the hill districts, including Churachandpur. Essential services and religious ceremonies were exempted.JFD organisation secretary Longjam Ratan said that the group does not oppose the Census itself but wants the exercise deferred until undocumented immigrants are identified and internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the ethnic conflict are resettled. The organisation has conveyed its demands to the chief minister, Union Home Minister and Governor.
The campaign, launched in April 2025, seeks an NRC update using 1951 as the base year, citing long-standing concerns dating back to agreements in 1980 and 1994 that successive governments allegedly failed to implement.
The strike coincides with the start of the self-enumeration phase of Census 2027 (August 17–31), with the main house-listing operations scheduled from September 1 to 30. Protests have grown in recent days, with women vendors from Khwairamband Ima Keithel staging sit-ins, students holding rallies, and demonstrators earlier disrupting census training programmes. Two students were injured in police action during protests on Monday.
Meanwhile, the state government has put the ball in the court of Centre by stating that state government has also been pleading for NRC before census. The state government spokesperson Sapam Ranjan Singh in Impahl told reporters, “We are with people of Manipur. The state government was planning to send a delegation of MLAs to New Delhi to renew our old pending demand of preparing NRC in the state.” He also referred the resultion of the state assembly and letters written to ministry of home affairs pleading for starting exercise to prepare the NRC in the state.
Earlier, home minister of the state Govindas Konthoujam on August 7 had stated that the Manipur government has conveyed to the Centre its willingness to conduct the NRC exercise within the constitutional and legal framework.
Former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, said on Tuesday that Mr Shah had given a “patient hearing” to the demand for NRC before the Census. “People are not against the conduct of census but are demanding NRC first and then conduct of census,” Mr Singh said, expressing hope for a positive response.
