Assam tribal status seekers' strike may hit local polls

Dec 17, 2007, 10:57 GMT

Guwahati, Dec 17 (IANS) Ethnic groups in Assam seeking more rights for themselves have called off Tuesday's scheduled meeting with the central government and have announced a 36-hour general strike beginning Dec 30, community leaders said Monday.

Leaders of six groups seeking Scheduled Tribes (ST) status have taken a joint decision not to go for Tuesday's meeting with Union Tribal Affairs Minister P.R. Kyndiah in New Delhi, and said they are ready only for tripartite talks involving the community leaders, and the state and the central governments.

The decision was taken at the eastern Sivasagar town Sunday after a meeting attended by leaders of 12 frontline organisations representing the six communities: Adivasi, Koch Rajbongshi, Moran, Mottock, Chutia and Tai Ahom.

'We have decided not to talk to any individual government leader. There must be tripartite talks involving representatives of the communities, the state government and the central government at a high level,' said Pallab Lochan Das, leader of the All Tea Tribes Students Association.

The decision to intensify the agitation, starting with the 36-hour statewide general strike from the morning of Dec 30, can hurt the ruling Congress in Assam, particularly because the staggered panchayat polls begin Dec 31.

The meeting of the tribal status seekers with Kyndiah was seen as an attempt by the state's Congress-led government to defuse the crisis ahead of the local body elections, the outcome of which is expected to give an idea of the Tarun Gogoi government's popularity level.

The six communities in the state are already unhappy with Kyndiah, a parliament member from neighbouring Meghalaya, after he rejected their claim for the tribal status on the ground that they had migrated to Assam from elsewhere and therefore do not fulfill the criteria laid down for conferment of such a status.

The government's criteria apply to the Adivasis, the ethnic communities who had migrated around 150 years ago from areas like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Orissa, and the Koch Rajbongshis who are said to have arrived from Bengal.

However, the Assam government as well as individual Congress leaders had responded to Kyndiah's stand by saying that his position or the laid down rules were not the last word on the issue.

In fact, the Assam government has made a formal recommendation to the central government that all the six communities be brought under the Scheduled Tribes list that would bring in reservation in jobs and educational institutions for these communities.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service