GUWAHATI: Tribal organizations of Assam have opposed the state government’s proposal for granting Schedule Tribe (ST) status to the Tai Ahom community with a special reservation without affecting the rights and interests of the existing ST communities.
Granting ST status to Tai Ahom along with five other ethnic groups – Koch Rajbongshi, Matak, Chutia, Moran and Adivasi – was one of the key electoral promises of BJP before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
“We demand granting of ST status without affecting the rights and interests of the existing ST communities. However, the representatives of tribal organizations said there is no such provision in the Constitution. We insisted on our demand for an amendment to the Constitution of India for granting ST status to us,” said Milan Buragohain, president of the All Tai Ahom Students Union (ATASU).
Buragohai was attending a meeting convened by the state government at Assam Administrative Staff College here on Tuesday to discuss the issue of granting ST status to the Tai Ahoms of the state.
The meeting was presided over by tribal affairs minister Ranoj Pegu and parliamentary affairs minister Pijush Hazarika.
“As desired by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Coordination Committee of Tribal Organizations of Assam (CCTOA) and All Tai Ahom Students Union (ATASU) and other Tai Ahom organizations sat in a discussion at AASC, Guwahati. Cabinet colleague Pijush Hazarika and I observed the meeting to find an amicable solution to the demand for ST status to the Tai Ahom without affecting the rights & interests of the existing ST communities,” Pegu tweeted after the meeting.
However, the Coordination Committee of Tribal Organization of Assam (CCTOA) rejected the demand of ST status to Tai Ahoms and advocated for giving maximum facilities and political reservation to the community as OBC (Other Backward Class) by amending the Constitution of India.
Speaking in the meeting, CCTOA secretary general Aditya Khakhlary said: “No separate reservation can be created for STs within STs under the Constitution of India. For access to jobs and education offered by Centrally-funded institutions, the grant of ST status to Tai Ahom will be serious and visible negative effects on all the STs of the Northeast and mainland India.”
“The mainstream Assamese have neither been classified as tribal nor had any special administrative arrangement has been made even by the British,” Khakaaahalary argued.
“Tai Ahom belongs to a royal family, who ruled Assam for 600 years. They are a very large community claiming to have a 50 lakh population. Tai Ahoms is a very advanced community having considerable political and economic clout over the state,” he said.
“If Tai Ahom is granted ST status, the seats reserved for the existing ST people in six Autonomous Councils created by the Assam government can be contested by persons belonging to Tai Ahom community, which will destroy the existing STs and indeed nullify the creation of the Autonomous Councils to protect the existing STs,” Khaakhlary said.
“If Tai Ahom is granted ST status they can contest village council elections and existing STs will not even be able to win elections at village council levels. Giving ST status to Tai Ahom, the genuine ST populations will be overwhelmed and thoroughly deprived of all sorts of protection and special provisions given by the Constitution,” he said.
He pointed out that the population of the Meena tribe of Rajasthan enlisted as an ST community in 1954 is 1.6 per cent of the total population. But they are enjoying 30 per cent to 35 per cent benefits meant for STs in UPSC since 1954. If Tai Ahoms are granted ST status, the competition in the national level will be Meenas of Rajasthan and Tai Ahoms of Assam while the existing STs will be nowhere,” he said.
“If Tai Ahom community is granted ST status, the existing STs will not have access to higher education and government jobs. The experience of the state level and national level are instructive. After the Union government granted ST status to Koch Rajbongshis in 1996 by promulgating an ordinance, it resulted in large-scale deprivation of original and genuine ST people of Assam,” he added.
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CCTOA was represented by its president Sukumar Basumatary and secretary general Aditya Khakhlary.
All Tai Ahom Students Union (ATASU) president Milan Buragohain, Tai Ahom Yuva Chatra Parishad president Dilip Gogoi and Bijay Rajkonwar (another faction), Purbanchal Tai Sahitya Sabha general secretary Puspa Saikia, Ahom Sabha president Uma Konwar and Tai Ahom Jatiya Parishad president Dayandanda Borgohain and general secretary Raj Kumar Chetia were also present in the meeting.
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