Another tribal body strongly comes out against ST demands by Metei/Meetei

IT News
Imphal: The Manipur Tribal’s Forum Delhi (MTFD), a body based at New Delhi, has strongly comes out against the demand by Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee for Meitei/Meetei (STDCM) and stated that the All Tribal Students’Union, Manipur (ATSUM) and other Tribal Organizations will extend support in their struggle against the demand.
In a press statement, the tribal body said that the regression of the Meitei/Meetei, as claimed by some vested interest group, (spearheaded by the Schedule Tribe Demand Committee of Manipur), is a serious matter to merely keep aside, as it has the potential to widen the gap by rubbing salt in the already wounded relationship between the hill tribes and the valley community.
The statement further added that Manipur merged with the Union of India in 1949, since then it status has gone through series of changes from part – C State to Territorial Council (TC) and then to Union Territory and became full-fledged State in 1972. Certainly, it would be disheartening as claimed by STDC, that the forward or advance community of the State has been regressing too low that they were even compelled to demand for the Schedule tribe status, even after completing more than 34 years of Statehood and almost 70 years of being a unit of the Union of India. If this claimed is correct, it is rather alarming and also implies, without any doubt that it is a fail State. However, scheduling tribes in India is aimed at affirmative action to empower the backward classes and weaker sections of the Indian population. The consequences of the state’s failure and its impact upon the advance classes is not the criterion for the inclusion of community in the Schedule Tribe list, as put forth by the Backward Classes Commission (1952) headed by Kaka Kalekar.
According to this Commission 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” (Backward Classes Commission’s questionnaire). This criterion was in fact not very rigid and gave the State/UTs of the Union of India the privilege to interpret and the Commission asked them to send the list which they deem backward to be listed.
But the Meitei/Meetei did not  recommend themselves to be Scheduled Tribe instead they recommend their own people who were outside the realm of Vaishnavism to be Scheduled Caste which sole criteria was (ex) untouchability.
The statement further added that A dominant community within the State and the State Assembly and who were not backward in the 1950s are claiming now to be backward in the 21st century is rather demeaning themselves. If at all they have to be listed they should joined their fellow Meitei brothers whom they condemned to be Schedule Caste, otherwise it would be like granting tribal status to the dominant dwija castes which is not consistent with the social structure of the Hindu society.