TRPA, AATSU slam Assam govt’s bid to grant ST status to six groups

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOKRAJHAR: Tribal Rights Protection Association (TRPA) and All Assam Tribal Students Union (AATSU) on Thursday strongly opposed the move of the BJP-led state government in Assam to grant ST status to six heterogeneous and advanced communities and asserted that this issue had become a political tool for their mileage.

In a press statement issued by the President of the AATSU, Hareswar Brahma, and Spokesperson K Boro, AATSU categorically opposed the recent announcement by Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the six advanced and non-tribal communities of Koch-Rajbongshi, Tai Ahom, Chutia, Moran, Matak, and Adivasis.

They said that the move was anti-tribal, unconstitutional, and politically motivated, aimed at diluting and destroying the rights, identity and constitutional safeguards of the aboriginal and indigenous tribal peoples of Assam. “If this decision is implemented, it will strike at the heart of the genuine STs of Assam, the true sons and daughters of the soil who have preserved their culture, language, and traditions since time immemorial,” they said, adding that this attempt to politically expand the ST category would erode the limited opportunities meant for communities that continue to face social isolation and developmental neglect.

The AATSU reiterated that ST status cannot be demanded but must be identified and recognized through constitutional and anthropological criteria. The Lokur Committee (1965) and the Supreme Court of India laid down five essential conditions for inclusion that includes primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with other communities, and general backwardness, but none of the six proposed communities meet these criteria, it said.

The statement said that the Registrar General of India (RGI) had rejected Assam’s proposal eight times for failing to satisfy the constitutional and anthropological conditions for ST inclusion. Yet, the current BJP-led government continues to push this unconstitutional agenda for electoral gains, clearly revealing a politically motivated intent to weaken the existing tribal population and capture their constitutional safeguards, it said.  The statement also said that the inclusion of these six advanced communities in the ST list would deprive genuine ST students of reserved seats in higher educational institutions, shrink job opportunities for tribal candidates in public employment, undermine political representation, as the numerical dominance of these larger groups would marginalize indigenous tribes in reserved Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies and would amount to constitutional betrayal and reverse decades of progress achieved by genuine tribal movements.

The AATSU said that while the government had been claiming to promote tribal welfare, Sixth Schedule areas continue to suffer from systemic neglect and the districts such as Udalguri, Baksa, Chirang, Karbi Anglong, and Dima Hasao remained educational deserts, with few government-run higher educational institutions beyond basic colleges. It questioned why premier institutions like IIT-G, IIM, IIMS, NIT, and central universities had not been built where tribals actually lived. It also said that the Assam Skill University, built with Asian Development Bank (ADB) funding and meant for inclusive development of tribal youths, was also established at Mangaldai, far from any tribal-majority areas, and that Assam needed institutional expansion, not reservation inflation.

“This is not the era to seek new ST classifications. It is the era to ensure equal development and strengthen institutions for those who are genuinely marginalized,” the AATSU stated and declared that it would resist this unconstitutional move through democratic means and, if necessary, approach the Supreme Court of India to protect the rights of Assam’s true tribal communities. On the other hand, the President of the TRPA, Janaklal Basumatary, said that the issue had not been solved in five decades as these communities did not fulfil the required criteria.

Also Read: Over 2,000 Teachers and Staff Protest in Guwahati Over Job Deprivation