The All Tribal Students' Union Manipur (ATSUM) on Friday stated that it is extremely perturbed by the chief minister's statement defending “the insult meted out to the tribal political leaders” by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during their recent visit to him.
Such an undemocratic, brahminical practice was a shocking disgrace that completely negates the principles of equality enshrined in the Constitution, ATSUM stated in a release.
“The home minister ought to explain and apologise to the tribal population of our state for mistreating our representatives in that manner,” ATSUM stated.
It is a huge disappointment that Chief Minister N Biren Singh and Minister Th Biswajit, instead of demanding justice for such an undignified discriminative conduct, defended the same by even embracing the discrimination as “our collective culture,” it stated.
It is an embarrassment to learn that the respected Meitei political leaders wilfully practice this caste-based behaviour towards the Union ministers in Delhi, it further stated.
“We the tribal communities of Manipur do not practice any such discrimination among ourselves or towards others, and hence, this discrimination to our representatives is not acceptable to us. We condemn Union Home Minister Amit Shah's discriminatory conduct and the deliberate false justification of the chief minister and the irrelevant defence of Minister Th Biswajit,” it added.
ATSUM stated that the chief minister has repeatedly betrayed the interest of the state tribal communities. Even after vehemently refusing to table the HAC recommended ADC Bill 2021 illegally, ATSUM had trusted his government and signed an agreement on November 25, it stated.
Following the agreement, ATSUM had temporarily suspended agitations but the state government's assurance that the ADC Bill 2021 shall be introduced by the government in the upcoming winter assembly session, 2021 was not honoured despite repeated reminders, it mentioned.
It further alleged the BJP-led government of deliberately betraying the tribal communities repeatedly and displaying its anti- tribal position.
“This is creating and increasing our sense of insecurity within the BJP led State Government. We condemn such anti tribal outbursts and wish to remind our chief minister to uphold our tribal interest as equal citizens of this state,” it added.
