Separate Administration - Malarkey or Existing Reality ?

Ngangom Junior Luwang *

The answer to the captioned question hinges on one’s understanding of the term “Separate Administration”. The answer is “Malarkey”, if one goes by the understanding of the term by some members of the Chin-Kuki-Zomi-Hmar & Mizo community (ostensibly Mizoram CM, Zorathanga’s) and the answer is a resounding “Existing Reality”, if the term is understood in the context of the Manipur Hills Areas Autonomous District Councils Act, 2000 (erstwhile Act of 1971) and 5th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

Surprisingly, Separate Administration has been in existence for our Manipuri tribal communities since the last more than 50 years and hold on, with additional legal/Constitutional safeguards (otherwise unavailable to other tribal communities in the rest of India) !

Under the Indian Constitution, more especially under Article 244, separate administration for Scheduled Tribes in India is governed either by the 5th Schedule or the 6th Schedule. 6th Schedule has been extended to only 4 States-Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya, evident from the ten Autonomous Territorial Councils spread across four States-for Bodos, Karbis, Dimasas in Assam, for Khasis, Garos, Jaintias in Meghalaya, for Chakmas, Lais and Maras in Mizoram and one Autonomous District Council for the Tribes in Tripara. For Scheduled Tribe communities in other States, Article 244 provides for application of the 5th Schedule.

Here, it’s worth clarifying that no provision of the Indian Constitution (including 5th or 6th Schedule) provides for a separate administration for any Tribal community, independent of the concerned State Administration.

Coming to Manipur, there is no clear extension of the 5th Schedule and the Manipur Hill Areas Autonomous District Council Act, 2000 does not expressly derive its legislative competence from either Article 244 or the 5th Schedule, but one sees traces of the said Article and said Schedule in the Act.

For instance, the definition of “Scheduled Tribes” in Section 2(n) of the Manipur Hill Areas Autonomous District Council Act, 2000 has reference to Article 342 of the Constitution and Article 244 provides for the 5th Schedule for “Scheduled Tribes” (understandably other than 6th Schedule Tribal Areas).

Second, though Manipur is yet to have a Tribal Advisory Council under Clause 4 of the 5th Schedule, Clauses 5 and 6 of the same Schedule enable the State Government to make special legal framework for Separate Administration (even by excluding Central or State laws) for Scheduled Tribe areas, an intent reflected in the Manipur Land Revenue & Land Reforms Act, 1960 and the Manipur Hill Areas Autonomous District Council Act, 2000.

Thus, the 5th Schedule stands extended to Manipur through 6 elected Hill Areas Autonomous District Councils (Churchandpur, Sadar Hills, Kangpokpi, Chandel, Ukhrul) in Manipur under the Manipur Hill Areas Autonomous District Council Act, 2000. Needless to say, the 6 Hill Areas Autonomous District Councils in Manipur do have substantial powers and functions, though little less empowered than the Territorial Councils under the 6th Schedule, but clearly more than compensated by other additional legal/Constitutional safeguards (nowhere bestowed on any other Tribal community in India).

It is often forgotten that the six Autonomous District Councils in Manipur have been exercising substantial legislative, financial and executive powers. Each Autonomous District Council, consisting of 26 elected members and 2 members nominated by the Governor of Manipur, has such wide executive powers like management of forests, establishment of town committees & village councils, dealing with Public Health, inheritance, social customs (including marriage, divorce), agriculture, cottage & small industries, land, drinking water, roads, primary and secondary education, women and child development, adult & non-formal education, physical education, games and sports, student welfare, rural electrification, making financial grants etc.

Even each Autonomous District Council has powers to levy and collect fees for maintenance & development of schools, dispensaries, roads, entry of goods, tolls on passengers and goods, vehicles & boats, animals etc. and manage its own budget & fund etc.

The above Separate Administration legal framework apart, our Tribal brethren in Manipur enjoy much more autonomy and Separate Administration functions than other Tribes in the rest of India, as evident from their exclusive land rights over 90% of Manipur’s territory (to the exclusion of valley people), despite their 40% population ratio with equal rights to buy and own land in even the remaining 10% of Manipur’s territory.

Second, no law relating to the Hills (except for Money Bills) can be passed by Manipur’s State Assembly without reference to the Hill Areas Committee (consisting of 20 MLAs from Hill Areas). Which other Tribe in India enjoy such privileges & Constitutional safeguards!!

To this extent, Manipur’s tribal community is a privileged lot and it is indeed a high time to rectify such a history of depravity, at least on the land front. Either the Manipur Land Revenue & Reforms Act, 1960 be extended to the hill areas as well to give the valley people equal land rights in the hill areas as well or at least amend the definition of “Hill Areas” in Section 2(j) of the said Act so as to make it proportionate to the size of the Tribal community population in Manipur.

Given the position above, most of us must be bewildered when our Kuki brethren recently came with up with a “Separate Administration” demand, without initially spelling out what it actually meant (as reflected in the Press Statement of May 12, 2023 by 10 Kuki MLAs)! But of late, there has been some clarity unfolding, going by the interviews of Mr Paolanlien Haokip, BJP MLA from Saikot Constituency on June 10, 2023 to NorthEast Live and of Prof. Kham khan Suan Hausing, Hyderabad University to “The Wire” (Karan Thapar) on June 17, 2023 !

While Mr. Paolanlien Haokip propounded a wide range of possibilities-separate State/Union Territory or amalgamation of Kuki dominated areas with Mizoram or a Separate Administration within Mizoram (presumably under the 5th or 6th Schedule of the Constitution), Prof. Haosing narrowed it down to a Separate Administration of Kukis within Mizoram, a narrative seemingly shared by the Mizoram CM, Zoramthanga.

Such a narrative has been sought to be pursued by the Core Committee on Separate Administration Movement, apparent from its Press Statement of June 19, 2023 issued after the Joint meeting of MLAs, Tribal Apex Bodies & CSOs of Chin-Kuki-Hmar-Zomi-Mizo tribes on June 17, 2023 in New Delhi. The genesis of such of a demand can perhaps be traced to the outlandish “Greater Mizoram” graffiti at Chura= chandpur in May, 2023.

All put together, be it a separate Kuki State/Union Territory or amalgamation of Kuki habituated areas in Manipur with Mizoram or a Separate Administration for Kukis within Mizoram, Kukis’ conceptualization of a Separate Administration involves dilution of Manipur’s territorial integrity.

When opting for a Separate Administration out of Manipur, what is impliedly express is the demand for invocation of Article 3 of the Indian Constitution to create a greater Mizoram by taking out the chunk of the Kuki habituated areas of Manipur ! Such a demand is as good or as worse as a separate State or Union Territory for the Kukis and should be equally unacceptable to the Central Government.

Our Kuki brothers’ “Separate Administration” demand is by all considerations (political, topographical, ethnical) next to impossible-Utopian or at best an El Dorado. Politically unfeasible in as much as a person not less than the Union Home Minister of India has ruled out any compromise on Manipur’s territorial integrity.

Second, the latest avatar of “Separate Administration” is and will be without any doubt unacceptable to the Meitei community as much as it is to the Union Government. When three words “without Territorial Limits” almost brought Manpur to a complete halt in June, 2001 and coerced LK Advani to retract the said three words, there is every reason to believe that the Central Government might not want to repeat the same mistake and push Manipur to a bigger flame !

Third, if Kukis were to be allowed to move away from Manipur under the garb of the so-called “Separate Administration”, there is no good reason to deny such rights to deny “Greater Nagaland” to our Naga brethren (should it be the majority demand)!

Fourth and most importantly, the inevitable devastating consequence of the Central Govt. succumbing to Kukis’ demand for a Separate Administration outside Manipur (as it has seemingly evolved) will leave only 10% of Manipur’s present territory to be called “Manipur”, with our Tribal brethren walking out with most of Manipur’s territories.

Going by their social media space, our Kuki brothers seem to see no issue in the present Manipur being split up into three parts on communal lines, justification being economic viability of hill areas as separate geographical entities on account of the claimed (howsoever wild) substantial hydrocarbon deposits beneath Manipur’s hills and mountains !

Topographically, it is difficult to fathom a Separate Administration for Kukis outside Manipur on account of the scattered Kuki population as dispersed as Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, Moreh etc. Should Zoramthanga be so interested in getting all Zo Tribe population under one political establishment, Zoramthanga ought to be generous enough to accommodate all of the Manipuri Chin-Kuki-Zomi-Hamar & Mizo community in Mizoram, without diluting Manipur’s territorial integrity !

Ethnically, just as our 10 Naga MLAs have expressly made it loud and clear, our Naga brethren could be opposing 6th Schedule Autonomous Councils for the Kukis for the same reason(s) they could be opposing a separate Kuki State/Union territory-ambiguities on Kuki and Naga habituated areas, compounded by the “Indo-Naga” peace talk!

For reasons given above, “Separate Administration”, as currently mulled by the Chin-Kuki-Zomi-Hamar & Mizo community, is nothing more than a “Utopia”, a far flung from political reality. Straightway, our Kuki brethren could have demanded a separate Kuki State, instead of going in for the euphemism “Separate Adminis- tration”, since all that they want is nothing less than a separate Kuki State or unification of Kuki habited areas with Mizoram.

Stretching it one bit, if our Kuki brethren are contemplating a Separate Administration independent of Manipur, the same will only reflect their ignorance of or rather indifference to the laws and Constitution of India.

Of Course, our Kuki brethren may still demand Autonomous Territorial Councils under the Sixth Schedule on the lines of such Councils in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. But if such Councils are to be extended to our Kuki brethren, the same would need to be extended to Nagas as well and the same cannot be without major concessions to the Meiteis (ST tag land rights in Hill areas) on a quid- pro-quo basis (though Meities may deserve what they demand on stand alone basis, not necessarily out of any quid pro quo arrangement), but still our Naga brethren may not be ready for 6th Schedule Territorial Councils on account of issues associated with land demarcation on tribal lines.

Aren’t we then back to square one on Separate Administration - the Status Quo!