The Office of the Registrar-General of India (RGI) has refused to publicly address whether the Meitei community in Manipur may be classified as Scheduled Tribe, citing the reason that doing so might 'prejudicially affect the sovereignty, integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with Foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence', as reported by The Hindu.
The ethnic community from Manipur primarily resides in the Imphal Valley and speak Meiteilon, often known as Manipuri, a widely spoken language in the northeastern parts of India. The recent violence in the state arose out of the conflict between the Meitei community and the Kuki-Zomi over SC status. The Kuki-Zomi people are categorised as SC whereas the Meitei community has been demanding a similar status.
Clashes broke out in Manipur after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts on May 3 to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
The violence was preceded by tension over the eviction of Kuki villagers from reserve forest land, which had led to a series of smaller agitations.
The Union government has stated that the procedure to include any community in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe list must be after approval from the Office of the Registrar-General of India.
“In view of the sensitivity of the matter and being only a part of the process, the ORGI comments cannot be shared under RTI Act as per clauses 8(1)(a), 8(1)(g), and 8(1)(h),” the ORGI told The Hindu in response to an RTI request.
Indications of 'primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large and backwardness' are some of the set criteria for any community to be included in the SC/ST category, ORGI said.
The Manipur High Court on March 27 had told the state government to send a recommendation for the inclusion of the Meiteis in the ST list to the Centre, which resulted in protests in the northeastern state, sparking widespread opposition from the existing STs (Kukis and Nagas).
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. Tribals — Nagas and Kukis — constitute another 40 per cent of the population and reside in the hill districts.
The ethnic clashes claimed over 70 lives and some 10,000 army and para-military personnel had to be deployed to bring back normalcy in the northeastern state.