Assam: BTC Chief Backs ST Status for Six Communities, But With Strict Safeguards for Existing Tribes

Kokrajhar: Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Chief Executive Member Hagrama Mohilary on Tuesday reaffirmed his conditional support for granting Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six communities of Assam – Ahom, Chutia, Koch-Rajbongshi, Moran, Matak, and Tai-Ahom – emphasising that the move must not erode constitutional protections or rights of the present ST population.

Speaking to the media in Kokrajhar, the former BPF supremo clarified that he has no objection to the long-pending demand provided “iron-clad safeguards” are incorporated to prevent any dilution of existing tribal privileges in land, jobs, and political reservations.

Dismissing claims that the issue is confined only to Upper Assam, Mohilary said statements suggesting the demand is primarily an Upper Assam concern do not reflect the ground reality in Lower Assam and the BTC region. “I don’t know what their specific worries are in Upper Assam, but here we are clear – inclusion is welcome only if it does not harm the current ST communities,” he added.

In a separate development, Mohilary welcomed the Assam Cabinet’s decision to exempt the three Sixth Schedule autonomous councils – Bodoland Territorial Region, Karbi Anglong, and Dima Hasao – from the proposed statewide ban on polygamy. With a smile, he remarked that people in these autonomous areas can now “marry more than once without any fear,” as the government has explicitly kept the councils out of the new legislation’s purview.

The twin statements come at a time when the Assam government is set to introduce the polygamy prohibition bill in the ongoing winter session while simultaneously pushing for the inclusion of the six communities in the ST list – two issues that have dominated political discourse across the state.