Committee Proposes Definition for ‘Assamese People’

The Committee on Implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, appointed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, has recently proposed a definition for ‘Assamese people’ in its report. This 14-member committee, led by High Court Judge Biplab Kumar Sarma, was formed in 2019 due to wide-spread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of 2019.

Understanding the Assam Accord

The Assam Accord is a tripartite agreement signed between the Indian Government, the State Government of Assam, and the leaders of the Assam Movement in 1985. The signing marked an end to a six-year-long agitation started by the All Assam Students’ Union in 1979, which sought to identify and deport illegal immigrants from Assam. The Accord set the cut-off at midnight of 24th March 1971 for detecting illegal foreigners in Assam. Despite this, demands persisted for the identification and deportation of migrants who entered Assam illegally post-1951.

Clause 6 of the Assam Accord

Clause 6 of the Accord advocates for suitable constitutional, legislative, and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, and linguistic identities, as well as the heritage of the Assamese people. The Biplab Kumar Sarma-led committee was created to define ‘Assamese People’ and establish protective measures for them.

Recommendations made by the Committee

In defining what constitutes an Assamese, the report proposes January 1951 as the cut-off date for any Indian citizen residing in Assam. Further recommendations include reservations for Assamese in Parliament, state assemblies, local bodies and government jobs. In addition, the committee suggested forming an Upper House (Legislative Council of Assam), with reserved seats for Assamese. To regulate the entry of people from other states into Assam, the committee recommends the introduction of an Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime in the state.

Additional Rights

The report further discusses issues related to land and land rights, linguistic, cultural and social rights, and the preservation of the state’s natural resources and biodiversity.

Issues Around Recommendations

According to the recommendations, individuals who migrated between 1951 and 1971, including a large number of post-Partition refugees, would be considered Indian citizens under the Assam Accord and the National Register of Citizens (NRC); however, they wouldn’t be eligible for safeguards meant for “Assamese people” under Clause 6 of the Accord. East Bengal migrants who entered Assam before 1951 would be regarded as Assamese. Currently, there are no mechanisms in place to verify if a person has been in Assam prior to 1951. The 1951 NRC is not accessible in several parts of the state, and the current NRC uses 1971 as a cut-off.

Way Forward

The primary legal and constitutional question requiring attention is whether the definition of an Assamese, Bengali, Punjabi or Tamil should define their Indian-ness or citizenship. The definition of Assamese is closely tied to the NRC process since the Assam Accord cannot be examined in isolation from its individual clauses.