Northeast Leaders Are Apathetic

Only one MP participates in debate on ST amendment bill

By NISHIT DHOLABHAI

New Delhi, Dec 24 : A bill related to the Northeast was passed by the Rajya Sabha yesterday, with just one MP from the region participating in the debate that was not to be held by “agreement”.

The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2011, which was passed yesterday, amends Part 10 of the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order of 1950, giving individual recognition to indigenous communities that were so far grouped. Thus Kabui, Inpui and Rongmei have emerged from Kabui; Kacha Naga, Liangmai and Zeme from Kacha Naga, and Koirao and Thangal from Koirao.

It also confers Scheduled Tribe status on the Mate community and amends Part 18 of the order by substituting the name Galo for Galong. These may seem simple changes but they have a far-reaching impact on the aspirations and the way tribal communities in the Northeast view themselves.

In 2008, the cabinet cleared the amendment to the 1950 order to satisfy the aspirations of the Nyishi community regarding removal of the term Dafla and insertion of Nyishi in the list of Scheduled Tribes in Arunachal Pradesh.

Dafla was perceived by the community as derogatory and thus, it was not a matter as simple as that of a mere spelling change. The Galo tribe’s demand for change of name is said to be for similar reasons, but there was no one to explain that in Parliament.

Just one of the 14 MPs from the eight northeastern states in the Rajya Sabha — Biren Baishya of AGP — participated in a debate on the bill. The performance of the Northeast MPs has left much to be desired, as few of the 39 MPs from the region in both Houses have displayed enthusiasm to bring the region into focus. During the session, there was not a single starred question posed to DoNER.

A starred question gets oral answers in addition to a written reply from the minister concerned, while an unstarred question only gets a written reply. Ironically, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam. There are three other ministers from the region — Vincent Pala (water resources) and Agatha Sangma (rural development) from Meghalaya and Paban Singh Ghatowar (DoNER) from Assam.

On the other hand, those like Pyarimohan Mohapatra (BJD) from Odisha and S.S. Ahluwalia (BJP) from Jharkhand participated to press for fulfilment of demands from their respective states. D. Bandopadhyay from Trinamul Congress and Tariq Anwar (Maharashtra) also addressed the House.

At the end of the debate, the sense of the House was to get a comprehensive bill with regard to communities, which have Scheduled Tribe or Scheduled Caste status in one state but do not enjoy in other states. In this important debate, however, there was little contribution from Northeast MPs.

Last week, the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha and there, too, there was an attempt to “stall” it, alleged Congress MP from Arunachal Pradesh, Takam Sanjoy.

The nonagenarian Congress MP from Manipur, Rishang Keishing, said he had been unwell and could not attend this session.

Mukut Mithi, the Congress MP from Arunachal Pradesh, who is also the convener of the North East MPs Forum, was probably not even on the list of Congress participants. Mithi could not be contacted for comments.

“Big parties like the Congress and the BJP give little space to MPs from the Northeast to participate,” said Assam MP in Rajya Sabha, Biswajit Daimary, of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF).

But then, neither did tribal affairs minister V. Kishor Chandra Deo nor deputy chairman K. Rahman Khan insist on a discussion that could have unravelled the region’s diversity and identity complex.

At the outset, Khan even said there was an “agreement” that there will be no discussion on the bill, as there were “minor” changes.

Every ministry attracts several questions from MPs in both Houses, but DoNER is an exception. “Only three or four unstarred questions were asked in this entire session and no starred question was asked,” Ghatowar told The Telegraph. The tea tribe leader seemed to have played down the unenthusiastic performances. He should have added that among these three-odd questions to DoNER, two were from outside the Northeast, including one from a Jharkhand MP.

There are answers to this also, though.

Daimary argued that when DoNER was not even a full-fledged ministry what questions could one ask. In fact, DoNER does not have a standing committee to discuss bills affecting the northeastern states.

This does not augur well for the region, said Keishing. “The parties are not as strong as before (in the region) and there is deterioration among nationalistic forces. If anything happens, we will regret it,” he added, sounding a warning against neglecting the area. The Manipur MP and former Manipur chief minister called upon younger people to participate more.