Sounding Delhi's man with ST call : Send the report as sought
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 27, 2025 -

This is perhaps the first time that the proposal that the Meiteis be included in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Constitution of India has been submitted to a man handpicked by Delhi to look after the affairs in Manipur and this is what is significant.

The initiative taken by the Arambai Tenggol is acknowledged and one hopes that the other ST for Meiteis champions including the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee, Manipur (STDCM), Meetei/Meitei Tribe Union (MMTU), World Meetei Council and the others take up from the memorandum submitted to the Governor and see how to give a further push to the demand that the Meiteis be included in the ST list.

By any argument, Meiteis are a tribal group. The only thing is they missed the bus to be included in the Scheduled list on more than one occasion.

This however should not mean that the Meiteis cannot launch a movement to be included in the Scheduled list of the tribals of India.

A look at some of the still prevalent social and religious practices should underline the fact that the Meiteis continue with practices that are associated with tribal groups.

Nature continues to be worshipped and Lai-Haraoba is an apt example that comes to mind.

This is but just one example and there are countless others that can be reeled off with a snap of the finger.

Perhaps it was in taking cognizance of the claim to be included in the ST list, that the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs had written to the State Government back in 2013 to send the ethnographic and socio-economic report of the Meitei community for consideration to be included in the ST category.

More than 10 years down the line and successive Governments slept over the matter.

And it was line with the communication from the Centre that the High Court of Manipur had asked the State Government to send the report as sought.

A directive to the State Government to send the report, nothing more, nothing less.

However it was the mischief mongers, the war criers, the trouble makers who conveniently misinterpreted the directive of the High Court and misled the people with their slogan that the High Court had ordered the inclusion of the Meiteis in the ST list and led to the infamous Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023 after which Manipur went up in flames.

Now nearly 2 years after the violence erupted and with no sign that Manipur has started walking the road to normalcy, everyone seems to have forgotten about the ST for Meiteis demand.

Why aren’t ITLF and CoTU and most significantly ATSUM saying anything about the ST demand ?

This very question should expose the real agenda behind organising the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023.

A ploy, a mask under which the May 3, 2023 rally was staged and everybody knows it.

Yet in the interregnum that followed since the outbreak of violence, the State Government continued to remain indifferent to the demand raised by STDCM, MMTU and WMC.

Now that the Governor has been sounded on the ST demand, it would be significant to observe how the other proponents follow this up.

No need to complicate matter for the task is simple. Just respond to the report sought by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs and let Parliament take the final call.

This is the job of the State Government and to those who are against Imphal sending the report, the question is, if the Meiteis do not fit the bill to be included in the ST list, why should there be any opposition to sending the report ?

The answer should lie in the very question that has been raised here and as stated and repeated many times here, internal reservations can always be worked out so that the interest of any community is not compromised.

The Sangai Express has repeatedly referred to the Nagaland model where the communities are classified under backward and forward tribes and reservation is based on this classification.

Such a model similar to this may be worked out here too and ultimately the reservation question should be understood in the pan India context.

Having said this, there is no reason why a tribal group should not be included in the scheduled list.