GUWAHATI: Six communities in Assam namely Matak, Chutia, Moran, Tai Ahom, Koch-Rajbongshi, Tea Tribes have expressed their anger against the Central government for not granting them the Scheduled Tribes status which has been a long pending demand in Assam.
On Thursday, community members protested in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts, burning effigies of chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, union home minister Amit Shah, and prime minister Narendra Modi.
A wide-scale agitation in the northeast has also been threatened if their demand is not met quickly. The Koch-Rajbonghi neighborhood's residents said: "If our demands are not granted, the entire Northeast would experience a condition similar to total paralysis. If the Center continues to manipulate our feelings, we will launch an economic blockade." After the federal cabinet recently accepted the inclusion of about 12 communities from Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka on the ST list, the protest gained strength. The All Tai Ahom Students Union (ATASU) said, a committee set up by the Assam government had long ago given its recommendations for granting ST designation, but nothing further was done with the issue. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, according to the ATASU, never provided an explanation for why the communities weren't included in the ST list.
Former Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram filed a bill in the Rajya Sabha to incorporate the six groups of Assam in the ST category in January 2019, after the state had experienced widespread public uproar over the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The bill lapsed because it was never put to a vote.
Akhil Gogoi, the leader of the opposition Raijor Dal in Assam, has said that the BJP is deceiving the public even after the law was approved by the cabinet. He said, "It seems like the Centre has a hidden purpose and wants to use the ST problem for its political interests.
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