Kamalanagar, 30 April, 2022: Dg. Rasik Mohan Chakma, Chief Executive Member, Chakma Autonomous District Council today unveiled the statue of Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar to commemorate the occasion of CADC Golden Jubilee installed in the premises of New CADC Secretariat Complex.
The programme organized by CADC Golden Jubilee Celebration Committee was attended by the Executive Members, MDCs, officers of CADC among others.
While explaining the significance of installing the statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Dg. Rasik Mohan Chakma stated that it was to express gratitude to the man who have provisioned the Sixth Schedule of the constitution of India under which Chakma Autonomous District Council came into being with many other Autonomous District Councils for the tribals inhabiting the many excluded and partially excluded areas of northeast India.
“It is also to inspire suppressed communities like us to struggle in life and rise above to fight back for our rights and dignity. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s life itself is an epitome of struggle of a disadvantaged man to success and fighting for the rights of the suppressed”, he stated while adding, “Our children, the children of a suppressed community shall be inspired by the life of Babasaheb to overcome their disadvantaged condition and rise to secure their rights and of their community”.
He further added, “It is also in recognition of his contribution to the revival of Buddhism in India which have been wiped off for centuries from the land of its origin”.
While recognizing the role of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar for the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India the CEM stated that it would not have been easy for Dr. B.R. Ambedkar alone had it not been for James Joy Mohan Nichols Roy who had persistently pushed for retention of the Sixth Schedule despite vociferous resistant against from many sections in the Constituent Assembly, in the backdrop of proposal for assimilation of the tribals.
It was Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who have drawn a parallel of the tribals of Northeast India with that of American Red Indians to back the provisioning of the Sixth Schedule in the Indian Constitution. The American Red Indians in United States enjoyed autonomy under so called Reservation or Boundaries.
Talking in detail about how the Sixth Schedule found its place in the scheme of the Indian Constitution he stated that the Indian federation basically originated from provinces fully administered by the British, the partially independent princely states and the excluded and partially excluded areas lived by the tribals of Northeast India. The tribals of Northeast India were not Hinduised unlike tribals of mainland India whose life were more or less influenced by Hinduism. The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India was drafted to provide for special administration for the excluded and partially excluded areas.
He termed the installation of the statue one of the most appropriate and significant actions taken by the CADC Golden Jubilee Celebration Committee to mark the golden jubilee of Chakma Autonomous District Council.