Congress, AIUDF veto Assam Speaker's report

In an unprecedented move, the Congress Government in Assam and a section of Opposition parties in the Assam legislative Assembly on Tuesday vetoed Speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi from tabling a report pertaining to the definition of ‘Assamese’ on the pretext that the political parties and members of the legislative Assembly were not consulted while preparing the report.

The Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) legislators,, who opposed tabling of the report in the House, also demanded the Speaker to expunge the proceedings from the House, to which the Speaker refused.

The opposing Congress and AIUDF legislators also alleged the Speaker of not following the rules of the House while preparing and tabling the report.

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), BJP and the BPF, however, supported the Speaker in tabling the report and said the members of the House should have opposed last week when the Speaker announced that he would put up an initiative to find out a definition of ‘Assamese’ by talking to different civil society organisations belonging to various ethnic groups.

The necessity for finding a definition of ‘Assamese’ aroused after State Assam Accord Implementation Minister Bhumidhar Barman recently informed the House that the Government has failed to implement the Clause VI of the historical Assam Accord, which promised to provide constitutional safeguard to the people of Assam, as there is no proper definition of an ‘Assamese’.

The Speaker, later, told he would hold discussions with all stakeholders to arrive at the definition and accordingly the Speaker held discussions with over 50 organisations and came out with the report on Tuesday. AIUDF legislator Abdur Rahim Khan opposed to tabling of the report and said since the Speaker had not taken the opinions of the elected leaders and he demanded the Speaker to withdraw the report.

Assam Government spokesman Rockybul Hussain said it has already been 30 years since the Assam Accord was signed and there is no proper definition of an ‘Assamese’ so far. “We have already waited for 30 years and so there should not be any hurry. Our Government had taken up several steps to address the issues pertaining to the Assam Accord, including the updation of the national Register of Citizens (NRC),” he said while appealing that the Government should be given the responsibility to talk to the people including political parties and different organisations to arrive at a consensus over the definition of an ‘Assamese’.

Former Assam Chief Minister and AGP legislator Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, however, said the opposing members of the House should have registered their Opposition when the speaker had initiated the move last week. “The report is only a recommendation and there is no harm in tabling the report,” said Mahanta.  Speaker Gogoi, however, said he would send the report to the Chief Minister adding the debate have exposed before the people of Assam as to who are against the constitutional safeguard for the indigenous people of Assam.