Dimapur, June 21 (MExN): A students’ organization of the Tikhir community today demanded revocation of the Nagaland government’s order directing administrations to issue indigenous or tribe certificates only to members of the 14 recognized tribes.
The Tikhir Students’ Union (TSU) took strong exception at the State government’s office memorandum directing district administrations to issue indigenous, Scheduled Tribes or Backward Tribe certificates only in the name of the 14 recognised tribes. The TSU called the move ‘undemocratic and unconstitutional.’
“Because there is no established rule (s) or whatsoever to discriminate any indigenous tribe though they may not have any representative in the state assembly or in the parliament. In this regard, the Tikhir Students’ Union expresses its whole hearted support to the Tikhir Tribal Council’s demand to revoke/nullify the office memo of the state government that was issued in the local dailies on June 14 last,” the union said in its press release. The press release was appended by the union’s president R Daniel Tikhir and joint secretary Kiusuthong Tikhir.
The unions said that the “hasty notification” issued by the government “denied the indispensable rights of the indigenous people had deeply hurt the sentiments of some yet-to-be-recognised indigenous tribes, particularly the Tikhir tribe, in the state.” The organization asserted that the Tikhir community is “one of the indigenous tribes of Nagaland (see List of Scheduled tribes; census of India and other records) with its unique history and distinct culture, having its own territory and existed since time immemorial hence, any move, either by the government or any organisation(s) against our inalienable rights will not be tolerated.”
The Tikhir students lamented that the ‘present issue’ has only ‘added salt into the wounds of our people inflicted by open discrimination and lackadaisical attitude’ of the government.
“Therefore, in order to avert unwanted situations which may come up out of this official notification or due to delay in delivering justice to our people, the Tikhir Students’ Union ask the State government to revoke/nullify its OM at the earliest and hasten up to address the demand for official recognition of our tribe without much delay.”
