In poll-bound Assam, why Sarma govt is planning to table a much-delayed report on Nellie massacre

What was the Nellie massacre?

On February 18, 1983, over the course of several hours, Nellie, a cluster of villages in Morigaon located around 60 km from Guwahati, saw a killing spree that left thousands of people, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims, dead. While the official death toll was 1,800, the unofficial number was almost double, at 3,000.

No arrests were made, with the killings taking place in the midst of Assembly elections in the state, held under President’s Rule due to the Assam Agitation – which began in 1979 and sought the detection and deportation of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh – being at its peak. The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP), the main leaders of the agitation, had announced a boycott of the elections.

In July 1983, the Congress government led by Hiteshwar Saikia that came to power constituted a ‘Commission of Enquiry on Assam Disturbances’, led by IAS officer Tribhuvan Prasad Tewary. Its terms of references were to “look into the circumstances leading to the disturbances which took place in the State of Assam during January to April 1983”; “to examine the measures taken by the concerned authorities to anticipate, prevent and deal with these disturbances and to assess adequacy whereof and indicate whether there were any deficiency or failures on the part of any authority or individuals”; and “to suggest measures to prevent recurrence of such incidence in future and to make such other recommendations as the commission may deem fit to make”.

The commission reportedly submitted its report in May 1984. However, the short-lived Saikia government, which was dismissed the following year, never tabled it.

In 1985, fresh elections were held in the state after the signing of the Assam Accord between the Assam Agitation leaders and the Rajiv Gandhi government at the Centre. The leaders who had led the Assam Agitation, and had floated the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), came to power.

What has appeared about the report?

Over the years, fragments have been written about it by journalists and writers. A senior Assam-based journalist who covered the state Assembly at the time says, on the condition of anonymity, that copies of the report were made available to reporters and legislators in the late 1980s under the AGP government led by Prafulla Mahanta. “My editor decided that we should hold stories on the report since it was critical of the agitationists. That would have been the case with the others as well, so it didn’t end up being reported.”

Nilamani Sen Deka, who was a minister in the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government from 2011 to 2015, quoted several pages from the summary of the report in his book Axomor Probojon Xomosya Aru Bidexi Bohiskar Andolan (Assam’s Migration Problem and the Foreigner Expulsion Agitation). Deka, who has since been removed from the Congress for “anti-party activities”, told The Indian Express that he accessed the report summary from the state archives.

The book quotes the summary as saying that the decision to hold the Assembly elections amidst the ongoing disturbances “cannot be blamed for the outbreak of the violence of 1983”. “The evidence produced before the commission clearly brings out that the issues of foreigners, language, etc have been agitating the minds of the people for the last several decades, exploding into violence on several previous occasions.”

The summary quoted by Deka says that another part of the report details violent incidents which took place in 1950, 1954, 1960, 1958, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982. The summary report as quoted in his book also states, “AASU and the AAGSP are primarily responsible for (starting) the agitation and for its consequences. There is overwhelming evidence that, with a view to preventing the holding of elections, arson, riots, destruction of public properties like buildings, road and bridges, sabotage of railway tracks, intimidation, picketing, ‘bandhs’ etc were organised (on) a pre-planned and extensive scale. The whole situation got out of their control and the violence resulted in enormous loss of life and property.”

In 2012, The Indian Express reported that the Tewary commission was also critical of the government machinery, saying it didn’t take necessary measures to prevent the Nellie massacre, despite clear information pointing to such a possibility, and reacted late even after getting news of the killings. This allowed the massacre to continue for eight hours, the article said.

What is the importance of the report now?

In an announcement last week, Sarma said the Assam Cabinet would table the Tewary commission report in the Assembly on November 25, in what he called a “courageous step”. He said former governments had not tabled the report claiming that the report did not bear Tewary’s signature, but that his government had confirmed the report’s authenticity through forensic tests.

However, it is unclear how the Sarma government intends to benefit from the report politically. The AGP, whose leaders were central figures in the developments of the time, is now an ally of the BJP.

Pointing to the timing of Sarma’s announcement, a senior Congress leader said: “For now, it seems a move to try and prevent consolidation of Muslim votes behind the Congress, since the Congress was in power at the Centre at the time (when Bengali-speaking Muslims were killed).”

The journalist who said he saw the summary of the report sees a similar design.