Representatives from Thadou Inpi Manipur and the Meitei Alliance have jointly submitted a memorandum to Jual Oram, Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, yesterday, urging the immediate deletion of ‘Any Kuki Tribes’ (AKT) from the Scheduled Tribes list of Manipur.
The memorandum highlights several critical points asserting the unconstitutional and ethnographically unsound nature of AKT’s inclusion.
The appeal, backed by the Government of Manipur’s formal recommendations from previous years, argues that AKT’s insertion in 2003 was arbitrary and lacks the cultural and linguistic distinctions required for Scheduled Tribe status.
It emphasizes the adverse impact on existing recognized tribes like Thadou, Paite, and Hmar, and raises concerns about potential misuse for identity fraud and illegal immigration.
The memorandum also disputes AKT’s legitimacy, noting it as a political label without ethnographic or linguistic basis, potentially allowing non-tribal entities to exploit tribal privileges. It calls for preserving the integrity and unity of Manipur’s recognized communities by removing AKT from the official ST framework.
The submission concludes with a plea for action to uphold constitutional integrity and maintain communal harmony in Manipur.
