Amid mounting pressure from six communities in Assam for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, the Himanta Biswa Sarma government is exploring a “step-by-step” approach of first forwarding recommendations to the Centre in favour of two of them, Moran and Motok, ahead of the Assam polls scheduled for next year.
The six communities seeking ST status are Tai Ahom, tea tribes or Adivasis, Moran, Motok, Chutia, and Koch-Rajbongshi. They are a part of the state’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) list at present, comprising around 27% of its population. Their demand for ST status gathers steam ahead of every state and national election, with Narendra Modi himself raising it while campaigning in Assam before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
With Assembly elections again on the horizon, organisations representing these communities have stepped up their efforts over the past month, different stakeholders told The Indian Express. In September, Moran, Motok, Koch-Rajbongshi, and Chutia outfits held large-scale demonstrations. On October 13, pressure groups representing the tea tribes held a mass demonstration in Dibrugarh, while Tai Ahom organisations are planning a demonstration in Dhemaji on October 19.
CM Sarma has said that a Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to examine the issue will place its recommendations before the Assembly on November 25, before forwarding the same to the Centre, and that the government is looking to find a “middle ground”. The principal opposition to this demand has come from the Co-ordination Committee of Tribal Organisations of Assam (CCTOA), which has representation from the Scheduled Tribes of Assam. According to the 2011 Census, tribals comprise 12.4% of the state’s population.
The government is also holding meetings with organisations representing some of the agitating communities. On Sunday, Sarma met with representatives of the major Motok outfits in Guwahati, days after chairing a similar meeting with Moran representatives in Dibrugarh. Motok and Moran representatives who attended these meetings told The Indian Express they had been told the government might move forward with their demand first and spend more time looking into the demands of the other four groups, which the existing ST communities are more strongly opposed to.
Cabinet Minister Pijush Hazarika, who attended Sunday’s meeting, told The Indian Express, “The existing ST representatives do not have an issue with ST status for the Morans and Motoks, but are objecting strongly against the rest. So, we might submit this in the report to the Central government and write that the discussions with the others remain ongoing. That way, we can move forward step by step… instead of the matter being stuck as a whole.”
Will the other groups agree?
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a Bill proposing to include the six communities in Assam’s ST list was introduced in the Rajya Sabha, but was not discussed or passed. Based on the Union Home Ministry directions, the GoM was constituted that year — and reconstituted twice since — “to determine quantum of reservation for six communities in the State, suggest revised quantum of reservation for OBCs after creation of a new ST category in Assam and measures ensuring full safeguard to protect the interests, rights and privileges of the existing Scheduled Tribes of Assam”.
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Aditya Khaklari of the CCTOA said his outfit “does not object” to the inclusion of the relatively small Moran and Motok communities, which are concentrated in a few districts of Eastern Assam, in the ST list. The outfits representing these communities peg their population at 3 lakh and 2-2.5 lakh, respectively.
“Their numbers are smaller and existing and existing tribals can compete with them. But if such populous or advanced communities like the others are recognised as ST, the existing tribals will be suppressed in all opportunities,” he said.
All Moran Students’ Union president Palindra Bora said his community’s organisations were now waiting to see what transpires next month. “We have told the government we will suspend all protest activities till November 25. But if (what is promised) doesn’t happen, we will resume protests in full force,” he said.
Both Moran and Motok leaders said they do not anticipate that the other four communities will resist the government’s plans. “Since it is difficult for any government to grant ST status to all six at once, the government has suggested it can go ahead with our communities because we are smaller… The others will not object because we have an understanding and we will continue to push until all get it,” said All Assam Matak Yuba-Chatra Sanmilan general secretary Swarup Gohain.
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However, it may not be as straightforward. “We have been demanding this for 30 years and our people already have ST status in other states. We should be given priority because our community is the most economically backward in the state and has been victimised for 200 years. Moving ahead with just two other communities will not be acceptable to us,” said Dhiraj Gowala, the president of the Assam Tea Tribes Student Association.
“Since all the Central agencies had earlier given the go-ahead and a Bill to include these communities was introduced in the Rajya Sabha, it is not acceptable that terms on this matter be dictated by a non-governmental entity. Why should there be divisions between the communities based on their approval?” asked All Tai Ahom Students Union president Basanta Gogoi, referring to the CCTOA.