The Congress-led United Opposition Forum has dubbed Wednesday’s Assam Accord meeting between government and All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) as a “victory” of the forum’s “sustained pressure on the BJP-led state government to implement the recommendations” that were put in “cold storage” for over four years.
The government and the AASU on Wednesday discussed the roadmap for implementation of Justice (Retd) Biplab Kumar Sharma committee’s recommendations on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.
The MHA-constituted Clause 6 Committee in 2019 had submitted 67 recommendations to state government in 2020 to secure the future of the Assamese people.
Out of which, 40 recommendations are under the jurisdiction of the state government, 12 will need concurrence of the Centre for implementation and 15 are under the domain of the Centre.
Clause 6 of the 1985 Assam Accord provides for “Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people”.
Addressing a United Opposition Forum press meet on Thursday, Assam PCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah said: “We welcome any step taken in favour of the 1995 Assam Accord but at the same time we need to check the chronology of events leading to these decisions and the timing of the decisions...”
Borah added: “The recommendations were put in cold storage for four years but had to be pulled out when the the Congress, the United Opposition started flagging issues related to corruption and smart meters.”
Rajya Sabha MP Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, Lurinjyoti Gogoi of AJP and Raijor Dal’s Bhasco De Saikia also addressed the joint press conference.
Thanking the United Opposition constituents for this “collective victory”, Borah later said in a post on X that they also want the Centre to spell out its stand on the recommendations of the Justice Sharma Committee “within a week or we will resort to one statewide dharna in all dists (districts) and subdivision htqrs (headquarters) a week to call the ruling BJP’s bluff on Clause 6”.
He said: “We also demand the Centre to accord ST status to the six communities... We want the Centre to complete the NRC process at the earliest. It (NRC) has also been placed in cold storage since 2019.Both are important for securing the future of the Assamese people.”
The PCC president then questioned why the BJP-led Assam government took four years to arrive at the decision to implement Sharma panel recommendations that were under its jurisdiction.
He said: “It is clear from the April deadline (set by the state government) that they have taken the decisions to create a hype of being pro-Assamese just to tide over the upcoming elections — Assembly bypolls and panchayat polls.... And then the 2026
Assembly polls...”