42 years on, Assam Cabinet to table Nellie massacre report in Assembly

The then Congress state government led by Hiteshwar Saikia had appointed a commission chaired by retired IAS officer Tribhuvan Prasad Tewary on July 14, 1983. It was mandated to “look into the circumstances leading to the disturbances which took place in Assam during January to April 1983, to examine the measures taken by the concerned authorities to anticipate, prevent and deal with these disturbances, to indicate whether there were any failures by any authority or individual, and to suggest measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future”.

While the report was submitted in May 1984, it was never tabled or made public.

Following a Cabinet meeting held Thursday, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that it decided to table the report in the legislative assembly on November 25.

“The copies of the report which were available with the Assam government did not have Tiwari’s signature because of which there has been second guessing of questions that would be raised on whether the report was authentic or not. We have interviewed different clerks from that time and did forensic tests and found that it is genuine. The previous government was fearing taking a courageous step on this. Some government or the other should present it, it is a chapter of our history,” he stated.

This move comes months ahead of Assam entering a state election and amidst a heightened climate of anxieties and rhetoric about alleged illegal immigration from Bangladesh and Bengali Muslims living in the state.

Following Thursday’s meeting, Sarma also stated that the Assam cabinet has decided to relax its population policy – making those with more than two children not eligible for government jobs, and certain schemes – for tribals, tea garden communities, and the Moran and Motok communities.

“These are micro communities. If we restrict their population, they may cease to exist after 50 years. We have sought the opinion of various social scientists and we have come to the conclusion that our strict population control policy needs to be relaxed as far as these four communities are concerned,” he stated.