Implementation of Clause 6 could be threat to tribal people: Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha

Our Correspondent

Kokrajhar: Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha (BJSM) expressed fear that the implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord that provided constitutional safeguards to Assamese people, would annihilate the indigenous sons of the soil.

In a statement by the working president of the BJSM, DD Narzary said that with implementation of clause 6 of the accord, the Assamese people were aiming at consolidating their political rights and by acquiring multiple benefits they were hatching plans for ‘Assamisation’ of indigenous tribal people by imposing their own language, culture and religion upon them. He said this tactic had been pursued for the last 400 years, and today it had taken a dreadful shape.

The Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha condemned the anti-indigenous tribal designs and urged upon the Central Government not to translate the clause into reality. “There is no race called Assamese in Assam. A few Brahmins who migrated around 15th century AD from Kanauj and Mithila styled themselves as Assamese and are, in fact, ruling Assam,” Narzary said, adding that these people, in conjunction with immigrants from outside the State, had formed an artificial Assamese race. By disregarding the 1951 Census they had fixed 1971 as the base year and by Assamisation of those immigrants who came between 1951 and 1971 and were not entitled to become Indian citizens, they had formed an artificial Assamese race.

Narzary said that as the so-called Assamese race was artificially formed, Assam was now facing a severe brunt. If at all any safeguarding is necessary then it should be for the indigenous tribal people who were the sons of the soil as their language, culture, lands and political rights were on the verge of extinction. Hence, constitutional and legal rights as envisaged in the Constitution of India should be ensured for the tribal people of Assam, he said and added, “When the indigenous tribal people of Assam are constitutionally safeguarded and secured then only Assam and the so-called Assamese people will see the light of survival.”

The Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha cautioned tribal leaders, tribal organizations and tribal members not to become scapegoats in their conspiracy. He said that the tribal people were and would never be regarded as Assamese because they were not Assamese. They were known to the so-called Assamese society by their tribal names. “As for the Bodos, there is no question of styling them as Assamese because the Bodos are a nation now and their language is listed like Assamese language in the 8th Schedule to the Constitution of India,” he said, adding that the Bodos in particular and the tribal people of Assam in general would like to live a dignified life by preserving their own language and culture.

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