Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (ICITP),
an Apex body of Adivasis of India established in 1987 and presently working with
more than 310 Member Organisations (MOs)
of various Adivasi Organisations representing 100 million of the most oppressed,
suppressed and marginalized section of the 1.21billion populations of this country,
first of all would like to express our unhappiness over not being considered by
the political parties of the country to our genuine appeal to consider Shri R.S.
Mooshahary as the consensus candidate for the 13th Presidential election.
For the general information of all the concerned fellow
citizen of this great country and as a matter
of fact , the Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (ICITP) would
like to state that we carried out an appeal campaign to all the national political
parties including INC, BJP, BSP, SP, CPIM, JDU, TMC, NCP and other regional
parties to consider sponsoring Shri R.S. Mooshahary as the consensus candidate
for the 13th Presidential election of the country with the attached
appeal letters w. e. f. 20th February to June 2012. Earlier in 2007
also ICITP carried out an appeal campaign for an Adivasi Vice President. ICITP
after series of consultation with its 310 member organisations all over the country
unanimously agreed to consider Shri R.S. Mooshahary to represent the Adivasis of
India as the consensus candidate and subsequently appealed all the political
parties to consider his candidature to provide opportunity to serve the nation as
a proud genuine Adivasi son of the country on the following grounds:
Apart
from his excellent service records as an IPS officer and a Governor, Mr. Mooshahary
is an Adivasi Ratna (ICITP organized “Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Mahasabha” for
the first time in the post-Independence India from March 28-30, 2011 at
Talkatora Indoor Stadium, New Delhi to review the various problems and issues
of the Adivasis and to collectively contribute towards policies to improve their overall situations in presence
of more than 3000 community leaders representing more than 500 Adivasi communities of India and among many others
activities, we have also recognized and honoured four most deserving great Adivasi sons and daughter of this
country with the title “Adivasi Ratna”
for their outstanding services in their respective areas of work for the cause
of the Adivasis and for the nation. The four proud sons and daughter of the
Adivasis recognized by the millions of Adivasis as their heroes in 2011
unanimously were Dr. Bishop Nirmal Minz, Jharkhand; Irom Sharmila, Manipur; Mr.
S.P. Wetsah, Nagaland and Mr. R.S.Mooshahary, Assam), a man of integrity,
efficient, eminent, a patriot, sincere to his duties, honest and a man of
practical experience in pan Indian matters who is also familiar with different
cultures and ethos of our plural populations of the country. He also enjoys
excellent reputation and impeccable integrity who is non-controversial with
acceptability across the political spectrum.
He is totally committed to work for a society free from exploitation,
corruption and any type of discrimination which is extraordinary. He is very
well-read and articulate, has the experience of working at all India level in
diverse fields. He is a man of broad outlook free from prejudice and pettiness
and has the courage to uphold the right cause. But our sincere aspiration of
the Adivasis to have someone of our choice as our custodian of the nation is
turned down once again by all the political parties.
Meanwhile,
with serious concern ICITP would like to express that Adivasis of India has
nothing to say on political parties who have shown their interest and support
to Mr. P.A. Sangma on his own personal merits or on political interest for the
Presidential candidate for the 13th Presidential election of India but
we do strongly reject his drumming of self-proclaimed representative of
Adivasis of this country, since Mr. Sangma neither consulted the Adivsis/Adivasi
organisations nor approached by any Adivasi organization prior to his sudden
self-forced appearance for the whole
gimmick to play the tribal card for his own personal ambition rather than
becoming a consensus Adivasi candidate for presidential election race. One thing
that we want to make things clear to the all concerned including dominant
society driven political parties of this country that we don’t want any
division of Adivasis for the sake of narrow politics and therefore we did not
ask any party to put our preferred consensus Adivasi candidate to contest in
the party lines but appealed to be sponsored for a consensus candidate as an
honour for the weakest section of the society of 100 million most oppressed,
suppresses and marginalised populations of this world biggest democratic
country by giving this opportunity to serve the nation for equal footings with
the rest of the dominant society.
Actually,
we at ICITP raised the issue of Adivasi President on the basis of social
justice and not on mere political interest and hence we deeply deplore
political parties who tried to consider our genuine appeal from mere political
angles. We are also very much disturbed by the political parties who have stooped
so low even to create social divide and take undue advantage to win the hearts
of millions of Adivasis in the country over the presidential candidature of Mr.
Sangma on his mere Tribal Identity. ICITP, through this press release would
like to inform all the concerned that the very arguments raised by Mr. Sangma
on Tribal identity during these days are not his own points but are stolen ideas
and real ordeals and voices expressed in our appeals to the political parties
which we have been raising since 2007.
We
are also concern with so called Tribal Forum of India (TFI) which was just
given birth on the 9th of May 2012 in the eve of 13th Presidential
election by few individuals particularly by few handful retired sold out Adivasi
Officers based in New Delhi on Sangma’s initiative only for the purpose of
facilitating Mr. Sangma’s personal single agenda to become a candidate for the
13th Presidential election in the name of Tribal identity after coming
to know ICITP’s campaign for Shri R.S. Mooshahary as a consensus candidature from
Adivasis of the country. We are aware of the fact that the Tribal Forum of
India has nothing to do with Adivasi issues and it neither enjoys any mass support
nor have any mandate on the Adivasis of this country. Failing to have support to
back his self-candidature as a consensus tribal candidature from any genuine tribal
body including Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (ICITP) as
we expressed unwillingness to back his candidature as a Tribal candidate on the
ground reality that he has no affiliation with any regional or national tribal organisations
of the country working for the Tribal issues and also on the ground that he has no record
of raising any tribal issues during his entire political carrier and therefore,
he finally desperately managed to convinced few handful self-centered retired Adivasi
officers based in New Delhi and few senior tribal politicians to form the TFI
and to raise the voice for his self-interest that ICITP already raised for the
100 million of the Adivasis of this country.
ICITP
on behalf of Adivasis of India, therefore, would like to clearly express that
we are not happy over the present development on the Presidential election. Neither
Shri Pranab Mukherjee nor Mr. P.A. Sangma is our preferred candidature for the 13th
President of India rather he was Shri R.S. Mooshahary who was the best choice
of 100 million of Adivasis of this country to be the next President of India. Therefore,
we feel that the sentiment of 100 million Adivasis of India are once again
ignored by the political parties of country and sabotaged by Mr. Sangma’s
individual hijack of the ICITP’s national campaign which was meant for the best
interest of the Adivasis of this land.
On
the other hand, the United Nations 2nd decades of the World
Indigenous Peoples is ending on 2014 and followed by a World Conference on
Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) in 2014 at the UN Head Quarters which will be
addressed by the heads of the world’s governments including India, a rare
opportunity where our genuine campaign and aspiration to be proud of our nation
having an Adivasi President after six decades of Indian Independence only to be
the next to the Bolivia in front of the world communities during the WCIP is buried
alive. ICITP once again strongly felt as if we the Adivasis of this country are
only the subject of deprivation, exploitation, suppression, oppression, marginalization
and humiliation despite the original inhabitants of this land.
(Jebra
Ram Muchahary, Chief Advisor and Dr. Cecil Khakha, Secretary General on behalf
of ICITP)
Jebra Ram Muchahary
President, Borosa Foundation for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (New Delhi);
President, ICITP-NEZ (Guwahati, Assam) & Chief Advisor, ICITP (New Delhi);
Member of 2nd Executive Council, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (Amarkantak, MP) and
Member of Advisory Board (Asia), Indigenous World Forum on Water and Peace (Victoria, Canada )
3rd Floor, B-51, South Extension Part-II, New Delhi- 110049
Phone: +91-11-26260715,Mobile: +91-8876669606
Email: jebra.icitp@gmail.com, dwi.jebra@gmail.com,
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