UGACMC Decides To Boycott Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) Election

Goalpara: The United Garo Autonomous Council Movement Committee (UGACMC), an umbrella body of several Garo organizations in Assam, has decided to boycott the upcoming Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) election scheduled to be held on January 21. In a press statement on Wednesday, the UGACMC declared that they would boycott the council election since their long-pending demand of separate autonomous council had not been listened by the government and the voters’ list of the RHAC had been prepared without excluding the Garo people.

“The Garo community has been demanding the exclusion of Garo villages from the RHAC since a very long time. The recent notification of election in the RHAC without the exclusion of Garo villages is not acceptable to the Garo community and they are enrolled unwillingly in the council voters’ list. Hence, to demand the exclusion of Garo villages from the RHAC and to create a separate Garo Autonomous Council, we have decided to boycott the upcoming elections of RHAC. The boycott will continue till the Garo villages are not excluded from the RHAC and a separate Garo Autonomous Council is created,” stated the press release.

Signed by Alex K. Sangma and Thengsil Sangma, president and secretary respectively, the press statement also said that the Garo people were the second largest ethnic tribe in Assam after the Bodos and largest inside the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council, outnumbering the Rabha community itself. “The Garos are very different from the Rabha community traditionally, historically as well as culturally and Garo people have their own culture, language and identity in which they follow a matrilineal family pattern whereas the Rabhas follow a patrilineal pattern. So, only by fulfilling the demand of a separate autonomous council will address the aspirations of the Garo community,” it stated.

The UGACMC also alleged that the development fund allocated for the RHAC had not been properly utilized for the development of the Garo people. “It is meagre and insufficient,” alleged the organization. The Garo people residing in Assam are demanding a separates autonomous council within the framework of the Indian Constitution. In the recently held panchayat election in the State, the Garos had decided to not cooperate. However, after meeting Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and receiving an assurance of autonomous council, they had withdrawn the non-cooperation.

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