Guwahati, Jan 18: The Joint Action Committee for Autonomous State (JACAS), a conglomeration of Karbi organisations, has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to consider their long-pending demand for creation of an autonomous state within Assam under Article 244(A) of the Constitution of India.
“We are writing this letter with the hope that our demand for formation of an autonomous state within the state of Assam as provided under Article 244-A of the Constitution of India will be met. The problems we, the hill tribes proper of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao, are facing and our demand for autonomous statehood, comparatively, may not be as important as those of the serious problems and issues confronting the nation but they too deserve the attention of the central government,” JACAS stated in the open letter to the Prime Minister.
The demand comes in the wake of the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation’s (ENPO) similar proposal for creation of a separate state (Frontier Nagaland) carved out of Nagaland’s six eastern districts.
Simultaneously, Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), a banned militant group which has been active in western Assam and northern Bengal, is in the process of engaging in deliberations with the Centre over its demand for a separate state (Kamatapur), comprising six districts of West Bengal and four contiguous districts of Assam.
“So, our demand for formation of an autonomous state within the state of Assam should also be taken into consideration the way the Kamatapur and the Frontier Nagaland have been taken into. In our humble opinion, granting autonomous statehood to Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao and the self-determination devolved thereby will definitely pave the way for the hill tribes proper to contribute their best to the integrity, peace and prosperity of the nation,” the letter to the Prime Minister read.
Karbi Anglong (bifurcated in 2016) and Dima Hasao, the homeland of Karbi, Rengma. Dimasa and other hill tribes proper, are two of the three tribal areas within the state of Assam as specified in Part I of the table appended to paragraph 20 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India.
“Article 244-A of the Constitution provides for formation within the state of Assam an autonomous state comprising all or any of the tribal areas. The hill people have been demanding the formation of an autonomous state comprising Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao since 1986; and the JACAS and its constituents have been spearheading the demand since 2013,” the letter read.
JACAS further mentioned in the letter that during the last 36-year long demand movement, three ‘accords’ have been signed-Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on April, 1995 with the ASDC and its allies: Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) on November 25, 2011 with the UPDS; and Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) on September 4, 2021 with six rebel organisations.
“But (even after the accords were inked) autonomous statehood is yet to be accorded to Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao. All the accords could not meet the legitimate expectations of the hill people of these particular hill areas,” it claimed.
“What is more infuriating is that by the MoS signed on September 4, 2021, it has been intended to destroy the very spirit and purpose of the Sixth Schedule and to undermine the constitutional safeguards provided to protect the rights, interests and identity of the hill tribes proper of Karbi Anglong in particular; and ultimately to put the very existence of the hill tribes proper in serious jeopardy in their own homeland,” the letter read.
“The MoS, therefore, cannot be and has not been accepted as “comprehensive and final” solution to the ongoing long-standing autonomous state issue,” it stated.