The Kuki-Zo ultimatum: A persecuted people's demand for survival through separate administration

On January 14, 2026, the hills of Manipur resonated not with protest, but with a definitive political verdict. Tens of thousands from the Kuki-Zo community marched under one non-negotiable banner: “Expedite Our Political Solution.” This was no ordinary demonstration. It was a collective declaration of a profound rupture—a final, unequivocal statement that the Kuki-Zo people will not and cannot continue to exist within the present administrative prison of Manipur. Their message to New Delhi is unambiguous: without a concrete, time-bound commitment to a Separate Administration, a Union Territory with a legislature,they will absolutely reject and refuse to legitimize any popular government imposed upon them in Imphal.

This historic rally, orchestrated by the Kuki-Zo Council and a united civil society, delivers a verdict on three years of state-sponsored failure. Since May 3, 2023, Manipur has been engulfed in ethnic violence, engineered and perpetuated by a majoritarian regime. The conflict, which claimed over 250 lives and displaced tens of thousands, is not a mere clash but a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Homes, churches, and villages have been systematically destroyed. The result is an unbridgeable chasm: a state fractured into hostile ethnic homelands, with the Kuki-Zo people subjected to persistent persecution.

The demand for separation is not secession; it is a constitutional cry for survival. It is an appeal to India’s own federal principles to protect a minority from annihilation. Trust is not strained; it is incinerated. The Kuki-Zo will no longer submit to the authority of a state machinery that has proven itself an instrument of their persecution.
The day before this mass mobilization, Kuki-Zo political and community leaders, including elected MLAs, delivered a stark political calculus to the Centre. In a meeting in Guwahati, they resolved to conditionally engage with state governance only upon receipt of a written, time-bound pledge from New Delhi to negotiate Union Territory status. No pledge means no participation. This is not a bargaining chip; it is a legitimate withdrawal of consent from a polity that has violently rejected them.

The Government of India now faces a monumental test of its constitutional conscience and its global standing. Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Constitution guaranteeing equality, non-discrimination, and life ring hollow in the Kuki-Zo hills. Provisions for Scheduled Tribes and special administrations exist precisely for such crises. To continue advocating for a “unified” Manipur is to endorse a dangerous fiction that perpetuates violence. The geographic and emotional partition is complete. The only just and logical solution is a complete political separation: a Union Territory or a separate state.

The world is watching. International human rights bodies have documented the atrocities. India’s reputation as a pluralistic democracy is not merely tarnished; it is actively being dismantled in the hills of Manipur. Placatory gestures and “law and order” solutions are insults to the victims. Nothing less than a bold political settlement recognizing the right to self-preservation will suffice.

The January 14 rally is a final warning. The Kuki-Zo people have drawn a line in the soil of their ancestors. Peace cannot be fabricated through forced unity. It must be built on the foundation of justice and political courage. The era of equivocation is over. The Government of India must ACT. It must immediately initiate direct talks to legally constitute a Separate Administration for the Kuki-Zo people. Further silence is not policy; it is complicity. The time to end this betrayal is now.