STDCM submits memo to NCST; ridicules ATSUM, MSCST
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, December 22 2022:
A team of Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee of Manipur (STDCM) called on members of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) currently stationed in Imphal and submitted a memorandum on Thursday.
According to a statement of STDCM, a 9-member delegation led by president Dhiraj Yumnam went to Hotel Classic Grande, Chingmeirong at around 9am and met NCST member Ananta Nayak through his PA and hotel staff as there was no response from Manipur State Commission for Scheduled Tribes (MSCST) member (admin) Dr Tara Manchin Hangzo, who facilitated programmes of the NCST team in Imphal.
The STDCM delegation submitted a memorandum to NCST member on the demand for inclusion of Meitei/Meetei Tribe of Manipur in the Scheduled Tribes list of the Constitution of India.
The memorandum stated that STDCM has been spearheading the movement of the indigenous Meetei/Meitei Tribe of Manipur for inclusion in the ST list.
It reminded the NCST member that some leaders of All Tribal Students' Union of Manipur (ATSUM), a students' body of tribes of Manipur already recognised as ST, recently camped in New Delhi and plead with NCST besides some Union ministers against the merits of the Meitei/Meetei's claim for ST status.
The ATSUM leaders even went to the extent of seeking support from all the recognised tribes (STs) of India against Meetei/Meitei's demand even though Government of Manipur is yet to submit its recommendations with relevant documents to the Centre.
The act of ATSUM leaders appear to be a blatant display of their hostile and un-broth-erly attitude towards their close, genetically and historically related brothers namely the Meitei/Meetei while the latter has been relentlessly making efforts to strengthen the brotherly bond with all other tribes in Manipur.
Such an overaction of ATSUM resulted in serious misunderstanding between the Meitei/Meetei and other tribes of Manipur that even the Manipur State Commission for Scheduled Tribes (MSCST), in an invitation letter addressed to all tribal leaders on December 15 for attending a meeting with NCST team on December 20 declared Tn view of the ST Demand by dominant tribe gaining momentum in the state, it's time we collectively join hands together and fight for our rights.
Time to be united and realize our dreams,' STDCM mentioned in the memorandum.
Placing some facts in support of the demand/claim to the NCST, the STDCM said that indigenous Meetei/Meitei community is one of the principal tribes of Manipur and this fact had been recorded in the successive Census records of the British India Government.
But after Independence, when India enforced its Constitution in 1950, the indigenous Meitei/Meetei tribe had been indiscriminately left out from the list of tribes recognized under the Constitution as Scheduled Tribes for reasons best known to the government.
Because of the non-inclusion in the ST list, Meetei/Meitei community has not been provided any Constitutional safeguards though the community desperately deserves it.
As a result, Meeteis are now facing many difficulties and challenges in the protection and preservation of their distinctive identity.
As such, STDCM has been urging the governments of Manipur and of India for restoration of constitutionally recognized tribal status to Meetei/Meitei tribe and provide Constitutional safeguards by enlisting the community in the list of STs under the Constitution of India.
The memorandum also urged NCST to render valuable advice to all concerned for strict avoidance of disinformation propaganda against the Meetei/Meitei tribe in general and STDCM in particular, and also to do justice to the demand for granting ST status to the Meetei/Meitei at the appropriate time.
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