Overview
- The Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation’s student wing led mass rallies and a two‑day state shutdown starting at midnight on August 17 to press for an NRC before Census 2027 and to demand return of internally displaced people.
- Security forces used tear gas and, in some places, lathi charges to disperse crowds at the Directorate of Census Operations in Porompat and at university campuses, and organizers and police give conflicting accounts of how many protesters were hurt.
- Students disrupted census training at Moirang College and tried to stop sessions at Dhanamanjuri University, actions that threaten the self‑enumeration window set for August 17–31 and the main house‑listing phase scheduled for September 1–30.
- Protesters say conducting the census before an NRC could register alleged illegal immigrants as citizens and alter Manipur’s demographic balance, while organisers frame the NRC demand as a prerequisite to fair delimitation and IDP resettlement.
- Political leaders have taken the demand to New Delhi, with former chief minister N. Biren Singh reporting he raised the issue with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, leaving the next move to central authorities and census managers whose decisions will determine whether operations are delayed.