Guwahati: The ruling Congress and opposition AIUDF on Tuesday forced Assam Assembly Speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi to retract his decision to submit a report on definition of Assamese to the state government through the House and compelled him to give it in his personal capacity.
During the beginning of the Budget session, Gogoi had said he would hold discussions with all stakeholders to arrive at the definition of Assamese after AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam observed there was no such proper definition.
However, without discussing the topic in the House, the Speaker today read out a statement saying the National Register of Citizen for 1951 should be made the base year and a definition could be given as described in that document.
On the last day of the ongoing Budget session, he claimed he met dozens of representatives of various social, ethnic, student groups, minorities, autonomous councils among many others in these days.
"Clause 6 of the Assam Accord could not be fulfilled due to absence of Assamese definition. I took a personal initiative and will now submit the report to the government," Gogoi said about the issue, which was not listed in the day's business.
Gogoi then submitted the report to Implementation of Assam Accord Minister Bhumidhar Barman through officials of Assembly.
On this, Congress MLA Ardhendu Kumar Dey walked up to the minister, took the report from him and returned it to the Speaker.
"You (Gogoi) have not discussed it with the MLAs. This is a big deficiency. You have not taken MLAs into confidence. We also represent the people of Assam. I request you to submit it after discussion in the House," Dey said.
