Easter Sunday as working day in Manipur govt offices upset Christian groups

31 March is often been the day on which Easter Sunday falls as it is due in 2024 as well. Easter is a moveable feast, meaning that it does not have a fixed date and can occur on any Sunday between 22 March and 25 April. According to some claims, the last time Easter Sunday fell on 31 March was in the year 2013, and before that in 2002. If we go further back in time, Easter Sunday fell on 31 March in 1991 and 1985.

Were government offices kept open on each of these Sundays is the question that many in Manipur are trying to recall, upset at the government notification late on Wednesday which stated that the Manipur Governor was ‘pleased’ to declare Saturday and Sunday, 30 and 31 March, this year as working days in PSUs and government offices. People cannot recall in Imphal when was the last time the state government had kept its offices open on a Easter Sunday on the pretext of ‘continuity’ and smooth functioning of the government in the last days of the financial year.

Manipur being a small state with a small enough budget, there was no reason why government accounts could not be settled earlier, fumed some Christian groups. It was known well in advance that Easter Sunday would fall this year on 31 March and there was no reason for the government to wake up to the fact on the evening of 27 March.

Following the ethnic violence that erupted in the state in May last year, there has practically been a population transfer in the state, with Meiteis, predominantly ‘Hindus’ left behind in the Imphal Valley and Kukis and Nagas, both predominantly Christians, confined to the Manipur hills. This, however, could not be a good enough reason for the notification, say these groups which suspect that the decision was just to rub more salt on the wound of the tribals.

A naga group Poumai Naga Tsiidoumai Me (PNTM) in a statement carried by newspapers in Imphal claimed that the government notification exhibited “blatant negligence towards the Christian community”, particularly during a time when Christians worldwide are observing the sacred Easter celebration.

The PNTM said the government’s disregard for such significant religious observance as “unacceptable” and described the government’s explanation “feeble and biased”. “It is imperative for the government to understand that governance entail respecting and accommodating diverse religious beliefs of its citizens, not just at the convenience of one section,” reads the statement.