The Presidential Orders regarding the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 and the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950. These orders were issued by the President of India under Articles 341 and 342 of the Constitution of India, which define who would be Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with respect to any State or Union Territory.

According to Article 341, the President may, with respect to any State or Union Territory, specify the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes which shall be deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to that State or Union Territory. Similarly, according to Article 342, the President may specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which shall be deemed to be Scheduled Tribes in relation to that State or Union Territory. The Parliament will have to pass a law, affirming the modification.

Commencing at the State or Union Territory level, the relevant government or administration initiates the process to request the addition or removal of a specific community from the SC or ST list. The ultimate authority for the decision resides with the President’s office, which issues a notification outlining the modifications using the powers vested in it from Articles 341 and 342.

For the inclusion or exclusion of any community in the Scheduled Tribes or Scheduled Castes list to take effect, it necessitates the President’s assent to a Bill amending the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, and the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950. The approval of the Bill is contingent upon its successful passage through both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

The state governments can recommend –either for the inclusion or deletion—based on their discretion or based on the committees that they have constituted. Those cases for inclusion or deletion, that are favoured by the state governments and the Registrar General of India will then be referred to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) or National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) for their opinion. There could be suggestions to the Commissions by the government to conduct further studies on the proposal using different means such as public hearings, or to make priority those cases on which a court has given specific directive in etc.

If all the three entities i.e., the Commission, the RGI and the state government give their nod of approval, an amendment would be proposed at the Cabinet level. If the Commission has not given its nod to the proposal, either to add or delete a community from the schedule, it would be rejected by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. If the Registrar General rejects the proposal, the Social Justice ministry or the Ministry of Tribal affairs sends it back to the state to re-examine the proposal, justify their recommendations in the light of comments of RGI; and if the RGI does not agree to the proposal too, the ministry may consider the rejection of proposal.

The RGI’s role

In an RTI query, it was found that for criteria to designate a community as Scheduled Tribe (ST), was being taken applying set guidelines from a 1965 committee. The criteria for Scheduled Tribe, as set out in the committee are indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness. These criteria have been termed dogmatic and rigid by an internal government committee in 2017. These old criteria, combined with a lack of data right now due to the lack of Census is worrisome.

With respect to Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950 allows only Hindus as SCs, and Hindus here includes Sikhs and Buddhists after amendments in 1956 and 1990 respectively. This mean that Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims do not get to be included in the list and the RGI has been reluctant to expand the order of 1950 beyond Hindus and Sikhs. Although Caste Inequalities exists in Indian Christian and Indian Muslim communities, they continue to be outside the ambit of the SC and ST status.

(The author is a researcher with the organisation)

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“The central government, having regard to the circumstances, is further of opinion that it is necessary to declare the Meitei extremist organisations… as ‘unlawful associations’ and accordingly, in exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to sub-section (3) of section 3 of the said Act, the central government hereby directs that this notification shall, subject to any order that may be made under section 4 of the said Act, have effect from the 13th day of November, 2023, for a period of five years,” it said.

As per the notification, the eight organisations are the Peoples’ Liberation Army generally known as PLA, and its political wing, the Revolutionary Peoples’ Front (RPF), the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and its armed wing, the Manipur Peoples’ Army (MPA), the Peoples’ Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and its armed wing, the ‘Red Army’, the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) and its armed wing, also called the ‘Red Army’, the Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL), the Coordination Committee (CorCom) and the Alliance for Socialist Unity Kangleipak (ASUK).

Further, the notification added that the Central government is of the opinion that the outfits have been engaging in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India; employing and engaging in armed means to achieve their objectives, attacking and killing the security forces, police and civilians in Manipur; indulging in acts of intimidation, extortion and looting of civilian population for collection of funds; making contacts with sources abroad for influencing public opinion and for securing their assistance by way of arms and training for the purpose of achieving their secessionist objective and maintaining camps in neighbouring countries for the purpose of sanctuaries, training and clandestine procurement of arms and ammunition.

It also said that the Central government is of the opinion that the activities of the organisations are detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of India and that they are unlawful associations. It said if there is no immediate curb and control the activities, they will take the opportunity to “mobilise their cadres for escalating their secessionist, subversive, terrorist and violent activities; propagate anti-national activities in collusion with forces inimical to sovereignty and integrity of India; indulge in killings of civilians and targeting of the police and security force personnel; procure and induct illegal arms and ammunitions from across the international border; and extort and collect huge funds from public for their unlawful activities.”

A 2018 notification declaring the ban against the outfits said the groups were involved in 756 violent incidents from January1, 2013- July 31, 2018 and killed 86 persons including 35 security personnel during the same period. The Monday’s notification omitted reference to the number of violent incidents the organisations were involved in the past five years.

A senior government official said the role of the eight organisations in the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur has also been found.

Earlier, on September 23, NIA had arrested M Anand Singh, a former cadre of PLA from Imphal.

The agency alleged that Myanmar-based leaders of insurgent groups and proscribed terrorist organisations were recruiting over ground workers (OGW), cadre, and sympathisers to augment their strength for carrying out attacks on security forces and opponent ethnic groups.

At least 175 people have been killed and thousands have been displaced in the ethnic violence between the tribal Kuki-Zo and Meitei people since May 3.

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These clashes erupted in response to demands for inclusion of the Meitei community as a Scheduled Tribe. This did not sit down well with the Kuki community. The Meitei’s reside on lands while Nagas and Kukis are hill tribes. The Meitei have been demanding ST status for long but the hill tribes have always opposed it since they believe they will be robbed of their lands. Kukis are unhappy with the BJP government in the state due to the multiple eviction drives on their ancestral forest lands, demolition of churches, insinuations of them being illegal immigrants from Myanmar and so on. The violence spread from Churachandpur district, a hill district, to the Imphal valley as well. Mobs have been on a rampage  burning houses and vehicles. Even Kangpokpi, Bishnupur and Moreh are under attack. There are no official figures on the number  of deaths yet.

Even as this violence surges, humanitarian stories have emerged from the ground. One such story was reported by East Mojo. People from the Meitei community were stranded in Churachandpur. The women of the Kuki tribe blocked the road and did not allow mobs to move further to harm the Meiteis. The Kuki women blocked the road forming a human chain while the mob seemed charged up but they did not move forward due to the women blocking the road. The Meitei women were being evacuated in Army vehicles but the mobs were not allowing the vehicles to move out, however, the bravery and humanity shown by these powerful women possibly saved the lives of these Meiteis.

“The womenfolk lined up on the street and blocked the road, not allowing any kind of vandalism and not allowing a mob that wanted to move ahead. This is a strange message of humanity shown by the womenfolk here in Churachandpur,” EastMojo’s Kalyan Deb, who has been reporting events from ground zero, reported.

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While the former is a minority, it is a hill tribe and is opposing the majority Meitei’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status which the ruling BJP government agreed to grant.

The situation has become so precarious that the home department of Manipur has issued ‘shoot at sight orders’, and even suspended the internet. A BJP MLA was attacked by a mob and is recovering in the hospital, there is no official death toll yet and people are scared for their lives.

The public petition started by Sarvodaya Sangam states, “we appeal to the President of India to ensure peace in the state. She belongs to the indigenous tribal community, and we expect her to empathize with the vulnerable communities of the state. We urge the President of India to restore law and order and ensure the safety of life and property. We urge to consider the imposition of Article 356 of the Constitution of India, i.e. President’s Rule in the state.  This step can ensure peace and tranquility among warring communities. The fundamental rights of every community need to be protected.”

The public petition also appeals for peace on both warring communities and wishes to spread the message of peace and to sit across the table and talk.

Kukis are unhappy with the BJP government in the state due to the multiple eviction drives on their ancestral forest lands, demolition of churches, insinuations of them being illegal immigrants from Myanmar and so on. The violence spread from Churachandpur district, a hill district, to the Imphal valley as well. Mobs have been on a rampage  burning houses and vehicles. Even Kangpokpi, Bishnupur and Moreh are under attack.

The petition can be read here.

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On the 3^rd of May 1993, nearly 140 Muslims were massacred in Manipur by the dominant Meitei community. Muslim houses were burnt, their properties destroyed. As has been seen in other such cases where Muslims have been on the receiving end, the police were actively complicit with the dominant community in this massacre. In the ‘conscience collective’ of this nation, this gruesome incident has been relegated to the margins of historical memory. There are different ‘reasons’ given for this massacre, but what is not disputed is the fact Muslims have yet to get even an iota of justice. The state, dominated by Meiteis, has seen to it that most who perpetrated this violence got away with it. At times, state governments have announced compensation for victims, but the amount has been shockingly so meagre that it seems that the purpose of awarding such compensation was to mock Muslims rather than give any relief to them. A commission of enquiry was set up to probe the massacre, but the recommendations of Justice Sen largely remained on the shelves. At some places, the commission report appeared to blame Muslims for bringing this massacre upon themselves.

Locally called as Pangals, these Muslims are indigenous to Manipur. They settled in Manipur much before the Meiteis became Hindus and therefore Islam has a much older presence here as compared to Hinduism. And yet, over the years, they have been stereotyped by the larger community as thieves and drug peddlers. This prejudice is one of the reasons why Muslims have been at the receiving end of such targeted violence in Manipur. A certain hatred towards the Muslim community has become normal within the majority population. Muslim men were attacked in 2016 for participating in a cultural festival. In the same year, three Muslim men were accused of stealing vehicles and two of them were lynched. And in 2018, a young Muslim entrepreneur was similarly lynched after being accused of theft. The gruesome incident was filmed and circulated which showed the young man being denied water during his dying moments and uniformed men poking his body with bayonets to make sure that the person was dead. Muslims are yet to find closure with regard to any of these killings.

Muslims in Manipur constitute around 8.5% of the population. However, in terms of representation, they are hardly in positions of power despite some form of affirmative action in place. Largely relegated to the lower rungs of the government sector, they have been demanding proportional representation to no avail. As if this was not enough, the state has tried to divest them from their land in the name of development projects. Muslim voices, like student activist Chingiz Khan, who have questioned the government, have been jailed or threatened.

Part of the problem lies with the nature of the Meitei nationalism itself. In contest with dominant Hindu nationalism, it has at times ended up borrowing the rhetoric of Hindu nationalism itself. A very active reclamation of their pre-Hindu past has led to a certain revival of their tradition and culture, including their language and religion. However, certain strands of this nationalism seeks to actively exclude others. The very idea of Meitei-Meiteilon-Meitrabak (Meitei-Meitei Language-Meitie Land) is a language of exclusion, often indulged in by right wing nationalist forces. An unhealthy obsession with the ‘exploding’ population of Muslims (despite the statistics showing that it is the Christian population which has increased manifold), the threat that Muslims and others are taking away their jobs, the often open call for increasing the Meitei population by producing more children is nothing but pure imitation of the techniquesof the supposed ‘enemy’. It is not a surprise therefore that not just Muslims but even tribal communities in Manipur are deeply suspicious of this brand of Meitei nationalism.It is this very mimicry of Hindu nationalism which was partly responsible for Muslim massacre of 1993.

Meitei nationalists generally have been at the forefront of anti-AFSPA agitation. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen them mobilizing and demanding justice for Muslims killed in 1993 massacre. There might have been a few examples here and there but certainly there hasn’t been any sustained effort on their part to understand their community’s complicity in the worst anti-Muslim killings to happen in their state. The very fact that this issue was taken up by some Muslim organizations is perhaps a telling commentary on the exclusivity of Meitei platforms. One assumes that if Meitei nationalism was inclusive then Muslims would not have to create their separate platforms. Meitei nationalists have traversed the world talking about human rights violations in their state. We need to ask whether this talk of protection of human rights and upholding human dignity applies specifically to Meiteis only. What explains the relative silence of these activists over the 1993 anti-Muslim killings? Is it that the community which presents itself as a victim to the outside world, is adamant to continue as oppressors within their own state? In recent years, Manipuri Muslims have taken earnestly to higher education and have started forging broader solidarities with like-minded groups. But it is too early to say whether this will work to stem the tide of anti-Muslim bigotry. Being in a minority, they can only do so much. Ultimately, it devolves on the dominant community to question their own prejudices in order to forge a truly inclusive politics.

Courtesy: https://www.karvaanindia.com/

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