Assam: Defining issue

Who can be considered an “Assamese” in the State of Assam who can enjoy constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards under Clause 6 of the Assam Accord? One of the members of the 14-member committee told Frontline, on condition of anonymity, that the recommendations included taking 1951 as the base year to define “Assamese people” and the reintroduction of the Inner Line Permit in Assam. If the Centre accepts the recommendation to take 1951 as the base year for defining an Assamese, those who came to Assam after this cut-off year and are Indian citizens by the provisions of the Assam Accord and their descendants will not be eligible to contest elections in the seats to be reserved in elected bodies or qualify to apply for government jobs to be kept reserved in reference to Clause 6. The AASU says that Clause 6 was inserted in the Assam Accord to compensate for the State taking the burden, on behalf of the country, of “illegal migrants” from erstwhile East Pakistan for a period of 20 years from 1951 and not for taking the burden of “illegal migrants” from Bangladesh for 43 years from 1971 to 2014, the cut-off date for citizenship mentioned in the CAA. While it is uncertain when the report of the high-level committee on the implementation of Clause 6 will be made public and what the Modi government’s stand on it will be, any more delay on this could weaken the efforts of the Central and State governments to push Clause 6 of the Assam Accord as the core clause instead of Clause 5.