Gorkha Parisangh releases White Paper on MHA Assam Accord Clause 6 HLC Report

A compendium of commentaries, documentations, historical facts and figures towards justifying Gorkha as an indigenous group in Assam published by Assam State Committee of Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh (BGP), the national social organisation of Indian Gorkha, was released today in Guwahati.

‘It includes verified documents and authenticated facts with commentaries in line of a research paper compiled by the scholarly group towards justification of Gorkhas as an indigenous group of Assam which the Justice Biplab Kumar Sharma’s MHA constituted High-Level Committee on Assam Accord Clause 6 undermined and left out from the report without any mention,” Parisangh’s Assam spokesperson Nanda Kirati Dewan, who is also the president of BGP’s youth wing, said.

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BGP’s White Paper was released by Assam Gorkha’s literary organisation the Assam Nepali Sahitya Sabha (ANSS). Its president Durga Khatiwada, a victim of D Voter, was excluded from NRC. He was later included after the BGP’s continued intervention. It had then caught national attention since a Sahitya Akademi awardee was left out of NRC and the matter was raised in the Parliament by young MP Gaurav Gogoi.

Prakash Dahal, president of Assam State BGP, said, “’BGP Assam constituted an empowered committee to study the HLC Report after AASU leadership placed it in the public domain and its finding was shocking to our community as such we officially registered our protest with a Decent Note to the Government of Assam through Chief Secretary with a demand to recognise Gorkhas as Indigenous Community of Assam and enable the group to enjoy equal rights and status enshrined in the Constitution of India.”

It may be noted here that there has been a huge uproar on this issue and it is yet to be addressed through a proper government notification. Responding to BGP’s representation, Senior Cabinet Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma had verbally told Gorkhas are an Ancient Community and Government will ensure that their constitutional, legislative and administrative rights under Assam Accord clause 6 are protected when it is being implemented to which Parisangh requested for gazette notification.

Yam Prasad Ghimire who is also the Organisational Observer of Assam interacting with media persons in Guwahati today at the release meeting said, “This White Paper published by BGP will be sent to all stakeholders including all the members of HLC and it will educate them about indigenousness of Gorkha in Assam. Besides, digital copies are being made available for wider circulation.”

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