Guwahati: The Assam Cabinet has decided to table in the state Assembly the report of a non-government commission that probed incidents of violence during the anti-infiltration Assam Agitation, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Sunday.
Addressing a press conference after chairing the Cabinet meeting, Sarma said this will be the first time that a report prepared by a commission formed by non-government agencies will be placed before the House. The five-day Assembly session begins on Tuesday.
The report in question is that of the Justice (Retd.) T. U. Mehta Commission, formed by Mukti Jujaru Sanmilan and leaders of the agitation. “AASU has said that the Mehta Commission report should be made public so that people can know all sides,” CM Sarma said, adding that the Cabinet has approved the tabling of the document.
The Cabinet has also decided to provide copies of the Tewary Commission Report, which investigated the incidents of violence in 1983.
The six-year-long Assam Agitation culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord in August 1985, though the problem of illegal migrants, over which the movement took place, continues to persist in the state.
The chief minister recalled that although the report was tabled in the Assembly in 1987 by then Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), only one copy was submitted, preventing legislators from accessing it. “On Tuesday, copies will be provided to all MLAs and others as well,” he said.
Sarma added that both reports were technically in the public domain but were never widely circulated. He said the Tewary Commission, constituted by the then Congress government, was “generally neutral and compiled through much hardship”.
Claiming that the Congress leadership is trying to block its publication, fearing political fallout, Sarma countered that there is “nothing in the report that will politically benefit the BJP”. “It is a historic document that will be lost to time if not made public. It is an academic exercise,” he said.
He pointed out that even though the Tewary report contains some criticism of AASU, the students’ body has supported its release. “New generations will learn about the situation back then. It is a crime against humanity to hide history,” he remarked.
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Sarma further informed that the Cabinet has approved around 27 Bills to be introduced in the upcoming session, including proposals on allotment of land to tea garden workers, regulation of fees of private educational institutions run by minority communities, and the establishment of a philanthropic university by the Azim Premji Foundation.
