MTU calls out repeated bid to link ST demand with present crisis
'Wrong narratives should be set right'
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 02 2023: Meetei (Meitei) Tribe Union (MTU) has taken strong exceptions to Union Home Minister's repeated remark linking Meitei's demand for inclusion in Scheduled Tribe list with the present turmoil situation.

Speaking to media persons at Manipur Press Club, vice president of MTU Sagolshem Robindro set straight the chain of events leading to the present clash.

Robindro said the Government had recently evicted structures built within Reserved Forest and Protected Forest areas and Kuki-Chin immigrants from Myanmar who had settled on encroached land protested and burnt many Forest Department offices in a series of arson.

On April 27, they also set ablaze an open gym at Churachandpur a day before Chief Minister N Biren's was to inaugurate it, he said.

MTU calls out repeated bid to link ST demand with present crisis

The tense situation took a turn for the worse on May 3 with a newly formed body along with militants suspected to be under the SoO pact staging a march in Churachandpur with many wielding sophisticated guns.

The subsequent burning of Meitei houses at Churachandpur and the spread of the incident in the small Meitei settlements at the peripheral areas and other Kuki dominated districts and the retaliation from Meitei whose sentiments were extremely hurt led to this situation, he said while asking on what ground Amit Shah linked all these with the demand to include Meiteis in the ST list.

The Union Minister must have known all the facts but to everyone's dismay he has linked the demand for ST to the present turmoil on three occasions, said Robindro who also expressed suspicion that the Intelligence system has failed terribly with wrong information being fed to the Union Home Minister.

Lamentingthe "prejudiced attitude and differential treatment meted out to Meitei community" by the Union Home Minister, he also questioned whether he is only concerned about the Kuki militants under SoO.

In the meantime, MTU's secretary administration Mutum Churamani maintained that the Meiteis fulfil all criteria (backed by reference books and other documents) for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe list.

The relevant reports and documents have been submitted to the all offices concerned including the Registrar General of India, Prime Minister, Home Minister, Governor, Chief Minister, he said while reiterating that the MTU's appeal to the State Government is to send the latest economic and ethnographic report of Meitei/Meetei along with a recommendation to the office concerned for consideration of their long sought demand.