BONGAIGAON, May 8 - The Assamese people will not survive unless Gorkhas of the State get included in the National Register of Citizen, said RP Sarma, Member of Parliament from Tezpur constituency.
He was addressing the open session of the sixth triennial conference of Asom Gorkha Sammelan�s Bongaigaon district unit as the chief guest. Sarma, while talking to mediapersons supported 1971 as the base year for identification and deportation of illegal migrants. He, however, added that there should not have been any base year for the Gorkhas for their inclusion in the NRC as the community is indigenous.
Sarma, who is the only sitting Gorkha parliamentarian in the country and president of Asom Gorkha Sammelan, praised the State Government for its initiative to grant land pattas to indigenous communities, including Gorkhas in the State to secure their land rights. He further said that since the Gorkhas have been enjoying the status of a protected class in tribal belts and blocks since the tenure of the then Chief Minister Gopinath Bardoloi, hence they have the right to get land pattas in BTAD too.
�We are not Nepalis, we are Gorkhas, the sons of the soil, so to get land pattas in the State is our right,� said CB Rai, the Sammelan�s general secretary, while addressing the open session, which was held at the District Library�s auditorium hall here.
Firebrand Gorkha leader, Bhaskar Dahal in his address said, �Six Gorkha youths had sacrificed their lives during the Assam Agitation. We had saved the Moran and Mottock communities from the attack of Maans from erstwhile Burma. No one can deny our contributions towards the uplift of the Bodos and the formation of the BTC. When someone calls us aliens, it pains us.�
The entire 40 lakh Gorkha population of the State still uses Assamese language as their mother tongue, Dahal added.
When the first census started in the State in 1941, Gorkhas were instructed to declare Assamese as their mother tongue to show the majority of the Assamese people. And because of this, the plot for annexation of Assam�s with East Pakistan was foiled in 1945-46, RP Sarma said.
In the open session, chaired by Sammelan�s district president Narayan Pathak, many dignitaries were present. Social worker Dr Itesh Bordoloi and Zila Parishad president Leena Singha were also present on the occasion.