Assam Assembly to See the Nellie Report — What Will It Uncover?

Addressing a long-standing public concern, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday announced that the report on the 1983 Nellie massacre, which had never been officially tabled in the Assembly, will now be presented on the first day of the upcoming session.

Speaking to the media, CM Sarma clarified, “The Nellie incident report was never tabled in the Assembly, so this time we will present it on the first day of the upcoming Assembly session.” He emphasized that the report contains detailed accounts of multiple incidents leading up to the Nellie tragedy and could serve as a reference for understanding Assam’s history.

Despite assurances by then CM Shri Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, the T.P. Tewary Commission Report on the 1983 Nellie incident was never tabled in the Assembly.

In today’s #AssamCabinet meeting, we approved distributing its hard & soft copies during the upcoming Assembly session. pic.twitter.com/VWfHkZ7KhK

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) November 13, 2025

Assam witnessed unprecedented violence in 1983, when over 2,000 people were killed and nearly 3 lakh people took shelter in relief camps for months. In response, the then Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) government had constituted a commission under the chairmanship of Tribhuvan Prasad Tewary. However, the report of the T.P. Tewary Commission was never made publicly available.

CM Sarma noted, “When we enquired, we found that in 1987, the then Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had placed the report in the House and had promised to supply printed copies. However, these copies were never provided, and even the Assam Legislative Assembly library does not have a copy of the report. The promise made by ex-chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in the Assembly will finally be fulfilled.”

In today’s Assam Cabinet meeting, it was approved that both hard and soft copies of the Nellie incident report will be distributed during the Assembly session starting November 25, 2025.

The issue of immigration has been a major concern for Assam since independence, sparking multiple episodes of violence over the identification of ‘foreigners’ or illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The most violent of these occurred on February 18, 1983, in the Nellie Massacre, where nearly 2,000 people of Bengali-origin minority communities were killed within six hours.

CM Sarma also highlighted that many younger generations remain unaware of the massacre, while those who witnessed or know of it often avoid discussing it due to the horrific nature of the events.

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