From Our Special Correspondent
GUWAHATI: Anti-infiltration forum, Prabajan Virodhi Manch has appealed to the high-level committee, constituted for the implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, to seek views of the state government first and “make the exercise meaningful”.
“At the first instance, the chief minister, MPs and MLAs should have advanced their proposal regarding constitutional safeguards to the committee and the public could have given their suggestions, because regardless of what the public may suggest or the committee may propose if the government doesn’t want to implement it, it will be an exercise in futility,” Upamanyu Hazarika, convener of the Manch, told media persons here on Monday.
“This is the mode followed by the government in case of the Citizenship Amendment Bill where they came forward with a proposed legislation and then sought public views,” Hazarika said.
“We therefore appeal to the committee to first seek the views of the government as only then their exercise will be meaningful or otherwise it will be conveniently discarded like the Brahma Committee Report,” he said.
Clause 6 of the Assam Accord envisages constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people. The Cabinet had given its approval to set up the committee on Clause 6 implementation in January this year.
“Even though land is the key issue and the key reason for migration and need to be protected first for indigenous people, the committee has still not been granted the authority and the power to give recommendations on land and trade licences, without which any safeguard is meaningless,” Hazarika said.
The Manch convener informed that the forum has submitted a proposal on implementation of legal and constitutional safeguards under Clause 6 of the Assam Accord to the committee.
“Our submission is that the safeguards have to be in two stages and two different levels. In the first stage it is necessary to reserve land, employment, trade licence, higher education opportunities for those citizens who were residents in Assam in 1951 or prior thereto and their progeny,” he said.
“This will correct the imbalance and injustice to the people of Assam for taking the burden of 23 years of additional migrants, unlike the rest of India and so that the newly granted citizens post 1951 do not enjoy co-equal rights as that of the existing citizens,” Hazarika claimed.
“This will also ensure that all resources in Assam will be reserved only for those who are citizens in 1951 and not for those who became citizens after 1951,” he said.
There are over 115 ethnic communities in Assam, each facing its own threat to identity and existence.
“In the second stage, each of these communities has to be enabled to secure their identity and existence. Implementation of the safeguards has to be by either Parliament or the state Assembly, by framing laws,” Hazarika said.