Sensitive handling must for return of peace to Manipur
The Manipur High Court’s March 27 direction to the state government to consider including the state’s majority Meitei community in the list of Scheduled Tribes has ignited violent clashes that have caused loss of lives and property. The Meitei petitioners in the court argued that they belong to the same racial and linguistic stock as the hill tribes of the state and, therefore, deserve to be designated as STs. The existing STs of Manipur—Kuki-Zomi and the Nagas—residing in the hills around Imphal Valley, have opposed reservation for the Meiteis, who, they say, are the dominant community that controls the state’s power and resources. The current clashes result from these contesting claims by the two sections.
The Central and state governments must strictly enforce the rule of law. An assurance to examine all aspects of the issue would soothe the flaring tempers. Once peace is established, the government needs to send a clear signal that the inclusion in the ST list would be done only on the basis of the Constitutional provisions and the definition provided by the successive commissions set up by the Centre for the purpose.
The first Backward Classes Commission, set up in 1953 under the chairmanship of Kaka Kalelkar, defined STs in the following words: “The Scheduled Tribes can be generally ascertained by the fact that they live apart in hills, and even where they live on the plains, they lead a separate excluded existence and are not fully assimilated in the main body of the people. Scheduled Tribes may belong to any religion. They were listed as Scheduled Tribes because of the kind of life led by them.” The Union tribal affairs ministry defines STs as follows: “The criterion followed for specification of a community, as scheduled tribes are indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness.” In both these definitions, isolation and backwardness are the key elements in identifying STs. Any dilution of these criteria would open Pandora’s box. The government needs to handle the Manipur issue gently as the players involved in the present tussle have ties across all northeastern states and even across borders in Myanmar and Bangladesh. There are also demands for carving out a separate Kuki state out of Manipur.