Two Manipuri leaders claiming to represent King Leishemba Sanajaoba have announced the launch of the ‘Manipur Government in exile’ in London.
According to The Hindu, Yamben Biren, who claims to be the ‘CM of the Manipur State Council’ and Narengbam Samarjit claiming to be the ‘Minister of External Affairs and Defence of Manipur State Council’ addressed a press conference yesterday to formally launch the ‘government in exile’.
The duo produced documents showing that they had been granted political asylum in the United Kingdom and said that ‘the de jure government is shifted from Manipur to London’.
We believe that now is the right time to make public the Independent Government of Manipur before the international community and seek recognition. We call on all the Governments of the sovereign states of the members of the United Nations for their recognition of the de jure and exile Government of the Manipur from today onwards.
They further said:
The three million Manipuri people want recognition as one of the Precious Native Nations. Our attempts to engage with the Indian government were met with hate and hostilities.
They also claimed there were ‘more than 1,528 cases of the extrajudicial killing which are pending before the Supreme Court of India’.
The two leaders said that they would be making an appeal to Queen Elizabeth II and after getting an order from the Privy Council they would be moving the United Nations for recognition of the state as an independent nation.
Meanwhile, according to Hindustan Times, Manipur’s ex-Maharaja Leishemba Sanajaoba has rebutted the claims and said that this was the first time he had heard about this news and was ‘totally shocked’ to hear this development.