Cutting across party lines, tribal legislators of Assam have joined hands in lambasting Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for a remark that his government made recently.They have also sought an unconditional public apology from him for his government blaming the state’s ethnic population for large-scale encroachment in reserved forests.The issue came up when the State Advisory Committee for Scheduled Tribes met here yesterday, with Opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) legislator Dilip Kumar Saikia drawing the attention of the members to a remark against the ethnic communities in a government affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court recently in connection with the clearing of reserved forests of encroachers.The government affidavit, signed by state Chief Secretary P.K. Bora, had stated that it was the ethnic tribal communities that were mainly responsible for large-scale encroachment and destruction of reserved forests in the state.Saikia was joined by other MLAs, belonging to different Scheduled Tribes, who asked State Tribal Development Minister Bharat Chandra Narah to adopt a resolution urging the Chief Minister to tender an unconditional apology. While Narah tried to pacify the members from Opposition parties, Praneswar Basumatary of the Congress joined in and commented that the Chief Secretary had lost his mental balance. Two other ruling party MLAs Paniram Rabha and Rajiv Lochan Pegu also criticised the government and sought the immediate intervention of the Chief Minister to retract the remarks made against the ethnic communities.Members belonging to the Bodo Legislature Party (BLP) on their part described the remark as an insult to the tribal communities and said the government should immediately withdraw the affidavit.Another AGP legislator, Sarbananda Sonowal, said the Congress government was on the one hand blaming the tribals while, on the other, it was protecting illegal Bangladeshi migrants who had entered reserved forests. The MLAs said they were particularly irked as most of the 37 tribal belts and blocks created at the time of Independence had been occupied by non-tribals, most of them Bangladeshi migrants.Fearing the issue may get out of hand, Gogoi has called a meeting of the state’s tribal MLAs later tonight to sort out the issue.
