The committee on implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord constituted by the Centre had submitted its report with recommendations on February 10, 2020.
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In his forwarding letter to the Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, the Chairman of the committee, Justice Biplab Kumar Sharma, a former Judge of the Gauhati High Court had then written, “ In view of the significance of the matter, the Committee expects that the recommendations proposed herein will be implemented with the same promptitude with which this Committee was constituted in order to inspire confidence among the people of Assam”. Over four-and-a-half years later, “promptitude” is more a misnomer, and there is little to believe either that the “significance of the matter” was even appreciated. Yet, from here, if all goes well, all the 67 recommendations of the Committee are expected to be implemented by April 2025, more than five years after these were submitted. This is what transpired in a meeting between the Assam government and the All Assam Students’ Union on Thursday, September 25 to discuss implementation of the recommendations.
Of the 67 recommendations, the Assam government has complete jurisdiction over 40 while it shares 12 with the Centre and the latter will have to oversee implementation of the remaining 15. And herein lies the rub. Will the state government be able to exert adequate influence on the Centre to ensure that it appreciates the significance of the matter and work with a single-minded purpose to meet the April 2025 deadline? Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has, however, said that the state government will ask the central government to engage in talks with the AASU to facilitate the implementation of the 15 recommendations under its purview. As for the 52 recommendations that the state government has to implement, the government will draft an action plan within the next month which will be handed over to AASU on October 25 when another meeting will also be held, and if the student body were to agree then the aim will be to implement the recommendations by April 2025. The 52 recommendations that the state government will implement cover land rights, language rights and cultural rights. However, the recommendations cannot be implemented in Barak Valley while in the Sixth Schedule areas, these can only be implemented after receiving explicit consent as they have the sole right to legislate in these areas as per constitutional guidelines.
Be that as it may, and the long delay notwithstanding, the latest development may still be considered positive if it were to culminate in complete implementation of the recommendations within the declared time frame. Here, it will be important for all sides to move forward on a give-and-take principle. For instance, a key contention remains over the definition of 'Assamese.' Sarma has asked AASU to accept the committee's recommendation, which varies from its position. While AASU maintains that anyone residing in Assam in 1951 should be considered Assamese, the Committee has excluded Barak Valley and municipal areas from this definition. Besides 1951 cut-off year, the Committee has included those communities who have settled in Assam and embraced the state's culture and language. The implementation of Clause 6 is a critical step towards protecting the rights and identity of the Assamese people and no stone must be left unturned to ensure that the Assam Accord does not come to nought.