One North East (ONE), a political movement that seeks to bring together a united voice of the indigenous tribes of India’s North East under a single political platform, started in August this year. Since then it has picked up steam and is drawing large crowds wherever meetings are being held in one or other of the eight states which includes Sikkim. The latest gathering happened in Agartala where huge crowds participated and where the voices of the leaders seemed to resonate with the thousands of ordinary citizens. The stance taken by those who have come together to start the ONE movement is that the region needs to play on its strong points and to ensure that the spirit of federalism that is embedded in the Constitution of India is followed in letter and spirit.
The key players of ONE as of now include Pradyot Manikya from the royal house of Tripura who leads the Tipra Motha Party (TMP), Conrad Sangma, the leader of the National Peoples’ Party (NPP) and currently the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Mhonlumo Kikon, former minister in the Nagaland cabinet and spokesperson of the BJP Party until he resigned in August this year and Daniel Langthasa former Member of the Dima Hasao Autonomous District Council. Recently, Hemochandra Singh, former Speaker of the Manipur Assembly, a minister and an MLA representing the Singjamei Assembly constituency for many years from the Congress Party and had earlier resigned from the party in 2024 also joined the One North East Party.
These leaders have been having several strategy meetings and are trying to convince the regional parties in Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Sikkim to join hands with them to defeat attempts by national parties to subsume the voices from this distant periphery and to only use the political parties from this region to keep the national parties alive here. A clear evidence of the lack of concern of the central government is in how the Manipur crisis is being handled. The Prime Minister only visited Manipur this year and that without any significant change in the status quo. Victims of the ethnic conflict of May 3, 2023 between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei are still unable to return to their homes. Victims on both sides of the divide have no homes to return to since those in the hills cannot return to Imphal valley and vice versa. Quite a few homes of people of both communities have gone up in flames. But no attempts have been made so far to rehabilitate the displaced people and to assist in constructing low cost homes so the displaced can return to some semblance of normalcy. This apathy of the central government towards the Manipur violence is what has made the leaders of regional parties in the region revisit their priorities.
The Central Government has signed agreements with TIPRA Motha’s Pradyot Manikya on restoring the land rights of indigenous tribals of Tripura – a right that all other tribes of the North East enjoy but there has been no response as yet from the Home Ministry. Similar is the fate of the Nagas who have been waiting for the Government of India to decide on their demands since 1997. This is what has triggered the need for a common platform for the North East.
