Guwahati, Sept. 3: The discussion forum of the US-based Unicode Consortium is abuzz with comments expressing opposition to giving a separate code chart to Assamese scripts in the consortium.

The development has come at a time when the Indian government has consented to the demand for a separate code chart in international standards.

It had decided to send a proposal to the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) to allot a separate code chart to Assamese script. Soon after the Centre's agreement to send a proposal to the ISO, talks began in the discussion forum of the Unicode Consortium.

One of the members of the forum, David Faulks, said the Assamese controversy was derived from a 'sub-nationalistic fit'.

'It appears that the Indian government will submit an 'Assamese' proposal. Since everything I know about Assamese script indicates that it is basically the same as Bengali and the Unicode Assamese controversy is derived entirely from a sub-nationalistic fit over character and script names, I expect that this proposal will not be accepted. However, 'popular nationalism' will probably be used to attack Unicode then,' wrote David Faulks.

Guwahati-based general surgeon Satyakam Phukan, who has been fighting for a separate slot for Assamese script in the Unicode Consortium, told The Telegraph recently that a lobby was working against Assamese script.

'This lobby, with white supremacy complex, will be another hurdle for the Assamese script. They do not want Assamese to get a separate code internationally,' he said.

Phukan said a strong and proactive role of the Indian government was crucial to help Assamese get its separate slot. Phukan expressed concern that the group had influence in the technical committees of the ISO and might try to deprive Assamese script from getting a separate code chart.

'The Eastern Nagari script is used to write Bengali and Assamese, as well as a few other languages. To the best of my knowledge, the existing Unicode encoding includes coverage for the minor typographic differences between Bengali and Assamese text. Any proposal for separate Assamese code points should be judged on its merits, and it's a 'non-starter',' James Kass, a member of the discussion forum, said.

'They have never been able to show the difference to anyone in SC2 (which has more than Americans in it), because there is no difference to show,' said Michael Everson, the registrar of ISO 15924, one of the ISO standards, and an employee of Unicode Consortium. SC2 is a technical committee.