Time to give more teeth to ST demand Make it an election issue

The relative silence of the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee, Manipur (STDCM) on the demand that the Meiteis be included in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Constitution may be understood in the backdrop of the manner in which it had to cancel the proposed public convention it had lined up in the early days of October last year. This however should not be taken to mean that the ST for Meiteis demand has been given the quiet burial. To many getting enlisted in the ST category could answer some of the most pressing issues facing the Meitei community and getting the ST tag should not be understood as taking a step or two back. Far from it, what is needed is Constitutional protection for the Meiteis and the best way to go about this is to be included the ST category. It has always been the stand of The Sangai Express that the needed report should be sent to the Centre, a report sought by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs as way back as 2013. Twelve years have passed since then and one wonders why the State Government is intent on repeating the follies of the past. And one also wonders why opposition to the demand that the Meiteis be included in the ST list should be raised. Or if the Meiteis do not fulfil the criteria to be tagged a Scheduled Tribe, let the Centre decide that. Just send the report and let the Centre decide is the stand of this newspaper. As stated earlier many times in this column, the Tribal Solidarity Rally of May 3, 2023 rested on a baggage of lies, for the All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur (ATSUM) knows and understands that it is not within the judiciary to decide which community should be included in the ST list. That is for Parliament to decide and all that the High Court of Manipur did was to tell the State Government to send the socio-economic and ethnographic report of the Meiteis which Delhi had sought back in 2013. And now if the Meiteis do not fulfil the criteria to be included in the ST list, then why should any opposition be raised against this demand, is one line of argument which The Sangai Express had been advocating. Enough has already been written on how the Meiteis fulfil all the criteria to be included in the ST list and the points need not be repeated now, but the fact of the matter is, the Meiteis are a tribal group who are yet to be included in the Scheduled list. The Sangai Express has also carried a long list of debates backing and opposing the ST for Meiteis call and one hopes the number of articles would have made the readers more informed on the subject.
The State Government may have its reasons for sleeping over the matter, but significantly has not spelt out an official position on the matter. This is where it becomes important for the ST for Meiteis advocates, such as the STDCM, the Meetei/Meitei Tribe Union (MMTU), the World Meetei Council (WMC) and others to take up the necessary steps so that it may become one of the more important issues when Manipur goes to polls in 2027. And the time is now. Give more teeth and substance to the demand. It should also not hurt anyone to try and see if the other indigenous community, that is the Nagas can be taken along or if this is not possible, at least convince them not to oppose the ST for Meiteis demand. It was sometime back that the STDCM launched the door to door campaign, knocking on the doors of the Meitei MLAs to get their position on the demand and one hopes this is taken further, especially in the run up to the next Assembly election. It is also important for the STDCM, MMTU, WMC and others to take everyone along with the demand so that unnecessary oppositions are not raised. The crux of the matter is however to understand why the State Government has refused to send the report as sought by the Centre and this question should be posed primarily to the Big Two, the BJP and the Congress. What is the position of these two political parties on the demand that the Meiteis be included in the ST list ? This is a question which the ST for Meiteis champions should raise with the seriousness it deserves, for ultimately what is at stake is the survival and progress of the Meitei community.