Safeguarding Assamese Identity 57 recommendations to be implemented
Guwahati: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that his government has decided to implement 57 out of 67 recommendations a high-level committee set up by the ministry of home affairs on implementing the Clause 6 of the historic Assam Accord which commits constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the culture, social, linguistic identity and heritage of Assamese people.
The 14-member committee headed by Justice (Rtd) Biplab Sarma was set up by the ministry of home affairs in 2019 following widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA), and submitted its report to then chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal in February 2020.
Informing that a cabinet meeting held in Lakhimpur on Wednesday approved the proposal, Assam chief minister told reporters, “There are altogether 67 recommendations. We approved 57 of them for implementation. Following consultations with AASU and other organisations, the cabinet prepared a roadmap for the implementation of the 57 recommendations by April 15, 2025. We will make these 57 recommendations public in the next four to five days.”
He clarified, “The remaining 10 recommendations are to be dealt with at the level of Government of India. We will take up those with the Government of India in a phase-wise manner.”
He said that the committee prepared its recommendations after a series of meetings with various stakeholders.
The decision of the Assam cabinet came close on the heels of demands by some organisations, especially in upper Assam, for the protection of the rights of indigenous people. The demands were raised by several civil society groups in the backdrop of the rape of a minor Assamese girl by three persons, all of them Bengali Muslims, in central Assam’s Nagaon district recently.
It is significant that the recommendations of the Justice Biplab Sarma committee have not been made public. But All Assam Students Union (AASU), which was part of the committee, disclosed in August 2020 that one of the recommendations was to make 1951 instead of 1971 as the cut-off date to determine who is an Assamese (those who are themselves or have their ancestors were living in the state in that year).
Other recommendations disclosed by AASU included protection of the state’s culture, heritage and languages, job safeguards (100 percent reservation in Grade III and IV jobs and 70 percent in Grade I and II jobs for Assamese people), protection of land of indigenous people as well reservations in parliamentary and assembly seats for indigenous people and introduction of Inner Liner Permit (ILP) that will regulate entry of outsiders to the state.
“The committee while submitting the report had given three years’ time to study the recommendations. Today, the cabinet decided to implement 57 of the total 67 recommendations by April 15, 2025,” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in Lakhimpur after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
He said that discussions will also be held with leaders of All Assam Students Union (AASU), which had spearheaded the 1979-85 agitation, and other organisations on the modalities of implementing the recommendations.
