As an elected MP in Lok Sabha, under the Constitution of the country, I do not represent Akoijam Sagei or Angom tribe/clan, let alone the Meitei community. I represent the people, the citizens – irrespective of caste, creed, tribe, community or religion – enlisted in the voter list – of my parliamentary constituency, namely, the “Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency”. That’s the way, I think, feel and act.

But those who suffer from the virulent viruses called “communalism” and “tribalism” think, feel and act like he or she is there to represent his/her religious community or tribe of his Lok Sabha or the Assembly constituency. Such a person whose personality is afflicted by communalism and/or tribalism, will forget that Indian Constitution does not entertain “communal representation”.

But following affirmative political thought/philosophy, it does follow reservation policy for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes. Thus, seats are reserved in the Lok Sabha as well as in the State Assemblies for ST and SC proportionate to their percentage in the population.

Thus, in Manipur, based on the census of 1961 (ST percentage was then 31%), the then available census data before the amendment of the Constitution of 1971 that granted full statehood to Manipur, 19 seats out of 60 (which is 31%) were reserved for ST. In these seats, non-ST were deprived of their Constitutional right to contest election.

Out of the remaining 41 seats, one was reserved for the SC, and the rest (40 seats) are left as Unreserved (general) seats where all the citizens listed in that constituencies enjoy both the right to contest as well as the right to cast her/his vote.

So, if a Hmar person represents a Constituency such as Churachandpur AC, she/he represents not only Hmar tribe but Paites, Thadou etc, including Meitei electorates in that Constituency. Similarly, if a Kuki person is the MLA of Kangpokpi AC (which is, by the way, an Unreserved/General seat), she/he represents not only “Kuki” but also all the electorates of that Constituency, including those belonging to other communities such as Nepalis, Meiteis etc.

The same goes for Unreserved constituencies such as Thangmeiband, Sagolbabd, Uripok, those elected members represent their electorates which also includes ST, SC, Marwaris, Sikhs etc. Likewise, reserved seats like Tengnoupal or Chandel etc, are not reserved for any specific ST, let alone the “Kukis”. And their MLAs don’t represent their respective tribes alone.

So, if there are 30 or 40 Meitei MLAs, they are elected by their electorates from the Unreserved seats based on the constitutional spirit and schemes of this country. And thus, they don’t represent their sageies or tribe/clan, let alone Meitei community. They represent their electorates – irrespective of tribe, caste and creed etc.

That’s the foundation, the letter and spirit of the Constitution. However, people who are afflicted by communalism and tribalism will think, feel and act against such Constitutional spirit and schemes by seeking to present this reality as “communal representation”.

They not only preach and act against the Constitution, guided by their compulsive communalism and tribalism, they also preach, produce and pursue hatred and bloodshed in society and polity. All the democrats and the lovers of freedom and peace must be mindful and wary of such people, and defeat their nefarious communal agendas.

~ A. Bimol Akoijam, MP, Inner Manipur

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