The reports about the hike in the salaries of the Hill Area Committee (HAC) Chairman and his team sounded like an insult added to injury to those of the tribal people in the state possessing an iota of self respect and political sensibility. A Hill Area Committee that has been stripped of its constitutional mandate and powers, one which has almost always been by-passed when it comes to crucial issues of protection of tribal interest and one that has been maintained to justify the denial of constitutionally meatier provisions for tribal protection such as the sixth schedule is now being granted a salary hike. While the hike is welcome, and probably justified by inflation, it certainly does not seem justified by the amount of work done by the committee towards meeting the essence of its existence.

Be that as it may, of more substance for the tribal public would perhaps be how the HAC is going to be, or should be, from now on. Will the hiked salaries also bring in its wake, a realization of the import of its essence and functions assigned to the body by constitutional mandate? Or, would it continue to be susceptible to be bought off and placated by tempting means to forego its responsibility and powers?

In the void created by the non-implementation of provisions of the sixth schedule of the constitution to the tribal districts of the state, the HAC was meant to be a House within a House, exclusively for deliberating, advocating and protecting tribal interests. The scheme envisaged the HAC to function like a cabinet of the Hills, without the consent of which no decisions affecting the tribal people can be adopted by the Manipur Assembly. It is a different matter that in practice, the HAC members often are divided on the government-opposition lines so fiercely that they fail to come together even on issues affecting the tribal people as a whole. It would also not be sans substance to say that the dominant community’s political leadership has successfully taken full advantage of such political tomfoolery of the tribal representatives in the state assembly over the years to the great detriment of tribal rights and interests.

If such political naiveté deserves a salary hike, a higher raise should be given to the rest of the members of the state assembly, because it is this House which has denied the tribal people their rights over land and government, and which today has made Manipur a breeding ground for armed militancy. The cacophony raised on integrity is irritatingly hollow given its high-pitched tenor for territorial integrity sans the calming bass-notes for peaceful, dignified and mutual-respect governed integrity of the people.

It is never too late to take the right turn. The dissent and disillusion engendered by such mixture of chauvinistic, anti-tribal politics on the one hand and political folly on the other may no longer be removed just by re-assuring the rights denied till now. But that is not the end of the road. The tribal leadership in the state needs an overhaul, both in terms of political awareness and of inducting knowledgeable and committed youths. The dominant community must also brace for a new leadership that is ready to choose peaceful coexistence over dominance and assimilation. The state deserves a government which ensures equal protection of the rights of the individual and collectives, irrespective of their being from minority or dominant communities. The tribal people of the state also deserve a much more informed and powerful HAC which can protect and project their interests, not one which can be placated with a hike in salaries and development project contracts.