Bezbaruah refuses to head panel on Assam Accord

After activists refused to be part of the high-level panel, former bureaucrat M P Bezbaruah has refused to head the government nominated committee to find ways to implement the assurances given in the Assam Accord.

Bezbaruah is the fifth member of the high-level panel who decided against joining the panel. He said he has conveyed his decision to the Home Ministry.

"It is untenable for me to continue in the committee when the representatives of the civil society refused to be part of the committee. Being head of a committee, without civil society members, does not make any sense," Bezbaruah said.

The Union Cabinet had on January 2 approved the setting up of the high-level committee for implementing the assurance given in Assam Accord that ensures Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of Assamese people. The committee was formed on January 6.

Those who have already quit the panel include the two presidents of the Assam Sahitya Sabha, Nagen Saikia and Rongbong Terang, educationist Mukunda Rajbangshi and a nominee of the influential All Assam Students' Union (AASU).

They were protesting against Lok Sabha passing the Citizenship Amendment Bill that seeks to grant Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Others nominated to be a part of the panel included former IAS officer Subhash Das, former editor of The Sentinel Dhirendra Nath Bezboruah and advocate general of Assam Ramesh Borpatragohain.