Assam CM ‘stoking conflict’ between 6 communities and existing STs: Gaurav on GoM report

Guwahati, Nov 30 (PTI) Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi on Sunday accused Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of stoking conflict between the six communities demanding scheduled tribe status and the existing ST groups of the state.

He claimed that the report submitted by the government in the state Assembly on Saturday on the scheduled tribe demand was unable to convince that the rights of the existing ST communities will remain intact.

A Group of Ministers (GoM) had submitted its report in the state Assembly on Saturday on the demand for ST status by six communities – Tai Ahom, Chutia, Moran, Matak, Koch-Rajbongshi and Tea Tribes (adivasis). If these communities are granted ST status, they will come under reservation for education and jobs.

Gogoi, the party’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, said in a post on X that the “Congress has supported the claim that six indigenous communities of the state must be declared as ST without affecting the rights and privileges of the existing ST groups”.

An assembly resolution to this end was passed during the last Congress government, he said, referring to a motion adopted under his father and Assam’s three-time and longest serving CM Tarun Gogoi’s administration.

On the GoM's report laid in the Assembly, Gogoi said, “Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma while bringing a report to grant category wise ST status has been unable to show that the rights of the existing ST communities remain intact.” Students from the Bodoland University here on Saturday stormed the assembly hall of the BTC secretariat, and vandalised property during the protest against the Assam cabinet's approval of the report. Bodos are one of the largest ST communities in Assam.

“As an indigenous community, we want the best for our tribal brothers and sisters. But it seems that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is stoking another conflict between 6 indigenous communities and the scheduled tribes of Assam,” the Congress leader claimed.

He alleged that this is typical divide and rule politics as practised by the British during the colonial era.

“People of Assam are fed up with this politics and will not wait for too long. We want to live in harmony as a strong united Bor Axom (greater Assam),” Gogoi asserted.

Six major communities of Assam – Tai Ahom, Chutia, Moran, Matak, Koch-Rajbongshi and Tea Tribes (adivasis) – have been demanding ST status.

The GoM report has recommended three-tier classification of STs in the state so that the demand can be met without affecting reservation of the existing tribal groups.

It has further proposed the formation of a new category of ‘ST (Valley)', and inclusion of Ahom, Chutia, Tea Tribes, and Kock-Rajbongshi (excluding undivided Goalpara) in it.

For Moran, Matak and Kock-Rajbongshi (Goalpara), it said they can be included in ‘ST (Plains)', and the existing communities in this category ‘do not have much opposition’.

The report said that dialogue has to continue with all stakeholders for a ‘conclusive solution’, and the final nod has to be given by the Parliament through Constitutional amendment. PTI SSG SSG NN