BJP is misleading people on ST status, says Rajya Sabha MP Ajit Kumar Bhuyan

Times of India: Guwahati: Wednesday, 05 August 2020.

Rajya Sabha MP Ajit Kumar Bhuyan has accused the BJP-led government at the Centre and the state of misleading the six communities of Assam, who are demanding ST status for decades.

Revealing the information received through RTI application, Bhuyan, in a news conference here on Monday said the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) had said last year that the six communities Koch Rajbongshi, Tai Ahom, Chutia, Mottock, Moran and Adivasi (Tea) Tribes possess tribal characteristics and qualify to be included in the list of STs of Assam. “It is unfortunate that a number of Rajya Sabha sessions have passed in the last one and half years since introduction of the bill but the BJP-led central government has not taken any step to reintroduce and vote for the bill. The BJP-led government has allowed the issue to remain hanging only for political gains, which is a betrayal to the six communities of Assam,” said Bhuyan.

He, along with the coordinator of newly floated Anchalik Gana Morcha Shantanu Barthakur demanded that the Bill be reintroduced and put for voting in the upcoming session of Rajya Sabha.

PM Narendra Modi mentioned it the issue during a rally in Bongaigaon in lower Assam in the run-up to the 2014 general elections that and promised that if he became the Prime Minister, the government will grant ST status to them in 100 days. “CAB became CAA but the said bill was not put to vote and it lapsed," Bhuyan said.

Again, prior to 2019 Lok Sabha elections and in the run up to the introduction of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), the then tribal affairs minister Jual Oram introduced 'The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019' in the Rajya Sabha on January 9 for the inclusion of the six communities in the ST category. "CAB became CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), but the said Bill for scheduling was not put to vote and allowed to lapse," Bhuyan lamented.

Citing information received through RTI application, he said that the government of India (ministry of home affairs) constituted a committee on February 29, 2016 under the chairmanship of the special secretary (Internal Security), MHA to suggest the modalities for granting ST status to the six communities. The committee in its report had recommended that the government may consider granting in-principle approval of ST status to the six communities. He said that the Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI) also supported the proposal for inclusion of the six communities in the ST list of Assam.

Further, Bhuyan said that according to a letter, dated January 7, 2019, from the assistant director of NCST to its chairperson and others, wherein a copy of the summary of record of discussions of 110th meeting of NCST on the same day was enclosed, stated, "After careful consideration, the NCST concludes that the above six communities possess characteristics of Scheduled Tribes and qualify to be included in the list of STs of Assam."