GUWAHATI: Almost a year after the high-level committee on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord tabled its report before the state government, the report is still to reach the Centre. A home ministry statement in Parliament on Tuesday revealed that the Assam government is still examining the report.
“A high level committee was constituted to examine the effectiveness of the steps taken since 1985 and required to be taken for the implementation of clause 6 of the Assam Accord. As informed by the state government, the committee held 36 meetings. The committee submitted its report to the state government. The recommendations are under examination of the state government,” Union minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy informed the Lok Sabha in a reply to questions by Congress MPs Abdul Khaleque and Pradyut Bordoloi.
The committee, headed by retired judge of Gauhati high court, Biplab Kumar Sharma, submitted the report to chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his cabinet colleagues on February 25 last year. Since then, the All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu), one of the prime signatories to the 1985 accord, has been criticizing the BJP-led government at the Centre and the state for their alleged lackadaisical attitude towards the recommendations and delaying its implementation.
The all-important Clause 6 seeks provisions for granting constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people. However, Aasu and several other organizations have been protesting, alleging that successive governments have failed to implement Clause 6 in letter and spirit even after the passage of 35 years since the accord was signed between Aasu, now-defunct All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad, the Assam government and the Centre to bring to an end the six-year anti-foreigner movement (1979-85) in Assam.
Aasu general secretary Sankar Jyoti Baruah hit out at the state government for the prolonged delay in handing over the recommendations to the Centre. “The Assam government played with the emotions of the people to get votes in elections after it faced the wrath of the people during the anti-CAA movement. If implemented, the recommendations will not be beneficial for Hindu migrants. BJP will not implement it. The people of Assam have every right to know the details,” he said.
Four members of the high-level committee — three senior leaders of Aasu and senior advocate of Gauhati HC Nilay Dutta — leaked the report which ‘suggested’ that only those people who were residing in Assam on or before January 1, 1951, and their descendants would be eligible for Constitutional safeguard.