GUWAHATI: Anti-influx forum Prabajan Virodhi Manch has questioned the seriousness of the Assam government in regard to follow-up action on the report submitted by the committee constituted for implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, Manch convener, Upamanyu Hazarika said that the fate of indigenous people could not be more exemplified than the manner in which the report of the Committee constituted under Clause 6 of the Assam Accord has been dealt with by the government.
“The committee, constituted under the chairmanship of Justice BK Sharma, gave its report nearly three months ago, and the fact that the government has chosen to disregard the report and is preparing to consign it to the dustbin is evident from the tweet of senior advocate and member of the committee, Niloy Dutta (on June 12), who publicly questioned the chief minister about the fate of the report,” Hazarika said.
“It is obvious that the entire exercise of constituting the committee for legal and constitutional safeguards to indigenous people was only to tide over the anti-Citizenship Amendment Bill/Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests. If the government really had any intention of providing legal and constitutional safeguards, then it would have taken the initiative of bringing in the necessary enactment as it had done in the case of CAA,” he said.
Hazarika, who is a senior advocate, also criticised the role played by the All Assam Students Union (AASU), three of whose leaders are members of the committee.
“Even more surprising is the role of the AASU. Three of its most senior office bearers have been members of the committee but they have chosen to maintain a deafening silence,” he said.
“AASU has taken the responsibility of leadership of the anti-foreigners movement over the last 40 years, but no responsibility for its failures – whether it’s the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or CAA or the Clause 6 Committee at present,” the Manch convener alleged.