ECI wades into fault lines of Assam to redraw electoral map

Published : Jan 26, 2023 10:35 IST The New Year has arrived with a fresh challenge for the Election Commission of India, which has begun the process of delimitation of the Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in Assam. The Committee on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, constituted by the Central government during the anti-Citizenship Act movement in Assam recommended that seats in the Assam Legislative Assembly and in local bodies be reserved for ‘Assamese People’ to the extent of 80 per cent. The committee noted that 100 per cent of the seats in the Assam Legislative Assembly would have been occupied by representatives of the ‘Assamese People’ if there had not been large-scale migration to the State over the years. The report said: “Now that the immigrants from Bangladesh up to March 24.03.71 have been granted citizenship causing demographic changes at the cost of the ‘Assamese People’, the committee is of the view that the quantum of seats in the Assam Legislative Assembly represented by ‘Assamese People’ be such that those representatives will have the final and controlling say in the Assembly in respect of major decisions pertaining to the State and the ‘Assamese people’ in the areas of their culture, language and identity. It is in this context that the committee is of the view that at least 80 per cent of the seats, including the seats already reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, be reserved for ‘Assamese People’.” The report said that the definition of ‘Indigenous person of Assam’, which was mentioned in the 1951 Census report pertaining to Assam, Manipur and Tripura, presented by then Director of Census R. B. Vaghaiwalla, was explained as: “Indigenous person of Assam means a person belonging to the State of Assam and speaking the Assamese language or any other tribal dialect of Assam or in the case of Cachar the language of the region.” It is on the basis of this report that the National Register of Citizens, 1951, was prepared, it said.