AASU insisted on unrealistic recommendations on Clause 6: says Sumanta Chaliha

GUWAHATI: Member of the high level committee on Clause 6 of Assam Accord Sumanta Chaliha today endorsed Assam finance and health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s recent observation that the implementation of recommendations of the committee in implementing Clause 6 was not legally practicable saying certain recommendations were indeed not permitted by the law of the country.

He said the recommendations included some issues such as reservation for indigenous people of Assam which were legally impracticable but were included at the insistence of the representatives of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) in the panel.

“For instance, political reservation only for indigenous people can be legally practicable in case of local bodies such as municipal bodies, zilla parishads, councils, panchayat etc. The issue of reservation of seats only for indigenous people in the Parliament was something even the legal luminaries were in doubt. However, the AASU representatives insisted for it.

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“Since there was a debate over the definition of the word Assamese as mentioned in the Assam Accord, we adopted the word indigenous people in the recommendations to envisage all people of the state. We had to explain why we used the word indigenous,” Chaliha said.

The author-columnist also said there was already political reservation for various sections of the society in the categories of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe (Plains), Scheduled Tribe (Hills) etc.

The AASU was represented by the then adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya, president Dipanka Nath and then general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi.

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He also said the AASU representatives insisted on cent per cent job reservation for indigenous people in private sector as well as government establishments in the state. “In that case, what would happen to those Assamese people who are working in various big corporates in different parts of the country? So we proposed to be lenient in this regard. But, the AASU representatives were adamant,” Chaliha told Insidene.com in an exclusive interview.

“As far as the statement by minister Himanata Biswa Sarma is concerned, it appeared to me that he referred to reservations in government jobs. He did not elaborate on it. So, I would not make much comment on it. The only thing is that there are certain constitutional restrictions in this regard which legal experts would be able to explain better than me,” he added.

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Chaliha, who recently joined the ruling BJP, further said the state and central governments are already implementing some of the recommendations which do not involve constitutional amendments, but only funds are needed. “There are certain recommendations which do not need constitutional amendments. Only funds are required for their implementation. And, the governments, both the at the state as well as the Centre, have been implementing those to some extent,” he said.

The high level committee, headed by retired high court judge Biplab Kumar Sharma, was constituted by the Union home ministry in 2019 and it submitted its recommendations with the state government on February 25, 2020.