Ghatowar (top) and Tasa

May 10: Frontline tea tribe organisations today questioned whether the All Assam Students Union (AASU) had any right to comment on ethnic identity, asking it to stay out of the controversy as it does not represent the greater Assamese society.

Evoking angry reactions during a daylong meeting, representatives of tea tribe organisations, including the All Assam Tea Tribe Students Association (AATSA), the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha, the Tea Tribe Youth Organisation and the Tea Tribe Sahitya Sabha warned the AASU to stop playing a “divisive” role for the greater interest of Assamese society.

The meeting, organised on the expiry of the May 10 deadline set for the AASU to define “once and for all who is an Assamese,” adopted several resolutions against both the AASU and the AGP.

“Since the anti-foreigners movement, the AASU has been playing nasty politics branding someone Assamese and others outsiders. The union is responsible for the fast fragmentation of Assamese society. This meeting wants an end to this divisive policy,” tea tribe leaders resolved.

Speaking at the meeting, Anil Kurmi, vice-president of the AATSA, said the tea tribe does not require a certificate from the organisation like the AASU to prove its identity as Assamese. “We know our past and history. Even during Chinese aggression, the tea tribe did not desert the state. It is because of the tea tribe, which has adopted Assamese as their mothertongue, that the language has thrived in Assam,” he said.

Kurmi urged the AASU leaders introspect whether they truly represent the Assamese.

Though the AASU yesterday steered clear of the controversy over the ethnic identity of the tea tribe, the leaders of tea organisations were not convinced with the explanation.

“Tea tribes are Assamese. So there is no need to clarify the obvious,” AASU president Prabin Boro had said.

The meeting was attended by all the Congress ministers and MLAs representing the tea community.

Coinciding with the meeting, the Assam unit of the BJP came down heavily on the AASU and the AGP. The party in a statement issued here accused the students’ organisation and the AGP of campaigning on communal lines against BJP candidate Kamakhya Prasad Tasha who contested the Lok Sabha poll from Dibrugarh.

The issue of campaigning on communal lines by the AASU and the AGP was first raised by PCC president Paban Singh Ghatowar during a news conference last week.

He said the nature of campaigning by the AASU-backed AGP in the twin districts of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia for the Dibrugarh parliamentary seat is a threat to the unity of Assamese society.

State BJP president Indramoni Bora, too, accused the AGP of playing the communal card during campaigning to ensure the victory of Sarbananda Sonowal, the party’s candidate and former student leader.