Doubts over Dispur's sincerity

Clause 6 of Assam Accord

BY Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, May 12: Is the Congress-led government of Assam at all sincere about implementing Clause VI of the Assam Accord? With the report on Assamese definition prepared by Speaker Prab Kumar Gogoi virtually given a quiet burial, such questions are again coming to the fore.

Following a series of deliberations, the Speaker had placed his report to the State assembly on March 31. Following a ruckus in the House created by members of the ruling party and the AIUDF over placing of the report, the Speaker submitted the two-page document to the Chief Minister a day later and left the matter to the latter’s wisdom.

It may be recalled that the Congress government, in its second tenure, had formed a cabinet sub-committee headed by Dr Bhumidhar Barman to look into the matter of implementation of the Clause VI of the Assam Accord on constitutiol safeguards for the Assamese people. Not much headway was made by that committee.

After coming to power again in 2011, the Congress government constituted a fresh cabinet sub-committee headed by Minister Prithvi Majhi to look into the issue. This committee met twice, but on none of the meetings the issue of Assamese definition figured.

In the recent reshuffle, the Chief Minister dropped Majhi from the cabinet. The cabinet sub-committee has not been reconstituted after that.

These exercises in futility are now putting a huge question mark over the Congress government’s seriousness and sincerity in ensuring constitutiol safeguards for the survival of indigenous people of Assam, swamped by illegal migration over long decades.