The Office of the Registrar-General of India has declined to make public its position on whether the Meitei (Meetei) community in Manipur can be categorised as a Scheduled Tribes as per the criteria currently in use.
The Office of the RGI said that disclosing this information to the public would “prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence”.
The Meitei community, comprising the majority of Manipur’s population, is currently in the middle of an ethnic conflict with the Kuki-Zomi people of the State (categorised as ST) over the former’s demand for ST status among other reasons.
