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Forty-two years later, two contrasting reports emerge on one of the darkest chapters in Assam's history

GUWAHATI: Two reports, one official and another unofficial, held contradictory views on the large-scale violence in Assam in 1983 during the height of the six-year-long anti-immigrants agitation, commonly known as the Assam Agitation. The state government on Tuesday tabled the non-government Justice (retd) T U Mehta Commission report in the Assembly and distributed copies of the Tribhubhan Prasad Tewari Commission report among the members of the House. The unofficial Mehta commission, formed by Mukti Jujaru Sanmilan and people who took part in the anti-foreigners agitation, and the government-constituted Tewari Commission had probed the violence. According to the Mehta Commission report, a major reason behind the violence was the imposition of elections against the wishes of the people. The anti-immigrants agitation was then sweeping Assam. The report said the situation was not conducive to hold elections and the then state and central governments were fully aware of it but the party in power at the Centre wanted the polls to grab power. The report further mentioned that the Election Commission could have decided against holding the polls to stop the violence but it failed to do that. Also, the report said, the polls were held without correcting the electoral rolls, much to the chagrin of people. The Tewari Commission report, however, said, In our considered view, the decision to hold the elections cannot be blamed for the outbreak of the violence of 1983. The evidence produced before the Commission clearly brings out that the issues of foreigners, language, etc. have been agitating the minds of the people for the last several decades, exploding into violence on several previous occasions, the report further said. The Tewaoy Commission report said the violence had no communal colour but added that the fear of the Assamese of eing overwhelmed numerically by migrants was ot imaginary. The Commission held the All Assam Students Union and the Asom Gana Sangram Parishad primarily responsible for launching the agitation and for the consequences. The report highlighted that the incidents of destruction and bandhs were organised on a pre-planned and extensive scale, eventually spreading out of control. According to the report, 3,023 people had lost their lives in the violence in 11 districts 1,811 of them in Nagaon. Nellie, then a part of Nagaon, witnessed the massacre of people, mostly women and children. The killings here are one of the darkest chapters of Assams history. According to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, although the Tewary Commission report was tabled in the Assembly in 1987 when the Asom Gana Parishad was in power, only one copy was sent to the Speaker. The Mehta Commission report was tabled in the House for the first time on Tuesday. The Assam Agitation culminated with the signing of Assam Accord in 1985. A major demand of the agitators was that the illegal immigrants should be detected and deported. However, despite the signing of the accord, the problem remains unresolved.