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Assamese Definition

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, March 19: Assam Assembly Speaker Prab Kumar Gogoi has convened a meeting of various ethnic and student organizations in the State on March 29 to deliberate on the issue of definition of Assamese. Assam Accord Implementation minister Dr Bhumidhar Barman will also be present at the meeting.

The Speaker is scheduled to meet representatives of all Xahitya Xabhas in the State tomorrow.

After the meetings, the Speaker will submit a report in the Assembly.

“I am just acting as a catalyst. It is not my duty to frame the Assamese definition. Nor can the Assembly decide anything. Of course, I have tried to elicit some views. The Assembly will submit a report to the State government which ultimately has to be sent to the Central government for ratification,” Gogoi said. The Speaker also termed as “positive” the initiative taken by the AASU and 25 other organizations, despite some of them having certain reservations earlier.

The Speaker insisted that Constitutiol safeguards must be ensured to the Assamese.

On the other hand, Axom Xahitya Xabha president Dr Dhrubajyoti Bora today called on the Speaker and informed he will not be able to attend the meeting of all Xahitya Xabhas convened tomorrow.

Emerging from the meeting, Dr Bora reiterated that it was not the duty of the AXX to frame the definition of Assamese. “It is the responsibility of the government. However, according to the AXX, all those people whose first, second and third language is Assamese are Assamese people,” Dr Bora said.

Yesterday, the All Assam Minority Students Union had rejected the definition of Assamese coined by AASU and 25 other organizations.

“If we go by AASU's definition, a large chunk of the population will be deprived of being recognized as Assamese," Abdur Rahim Ahmed, president of AAMSU, had said.

AASU and 25 organisations had said all people whose mes, irrespective of caste, community or religion, were included in the 1951 NRC are Assamese and eligible to enjoy safeguards as promised by clause 6 of the Assam Accord.