Leaders of national minorities on Wednesday told New Age that they had not made any shift in their demand for their constitutional recognition as 'indigenous people.'
They made their position clear after the media had reported that the law minister, Shafique Ahmed, after a meeting with a delegation of national minorities on Tuesday said that 'they [national minorities] no longer wants to be recognised as indigenous. They have made a shift in their demand for their recognition as indigenous.'
The Chakma circle chief, Raja Devashish Roy, however, rejected the minister's statement. He said, 'We have been demanding such recognition since the time the government planned to amend the constitution. But the government seems not to heed our demand. The special parliamentary committee on constitutional amendment even invited all quarters but the indigenous groups to its dialogue.'
Referring to Section 23(A) inserted in the constitution amendment proposal that includes terms such as 'tribal' and 'ethnic minorities,' Devashish said that such words were not acceptable at all.
He said that the word 'tribal' is derogatory as the Bangla word for it, 'upajati,' means sub-caste and the word 'minorities' is associated with discrimination.
'We urged inclusion of the word "indigenous" and when the minister said that the prime minister is not willing to use the word, we then proposed that any other words or phrases but "tribal" and "ethnic minorities" could be used,' Devashish said.
Echoing Devashish's comment, the Bangladesh Adivasi Forum general secretary, Sanjeeb Drong, said, 'We tried to tell the minister that the indigenous peoples living within Bangladesh do hold the same characteristics as do other indigenous peoples of the world.'
Source : New Age
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