BJP claims to protect ‘indigenous’ groups in Assam. But they are protesting against its government

On September 26, a stretch of a major road at Sadiya cutting through Tinsukia district in Assam was flooded with the light of thousands of bamboo torches held up by protestors shouting slogans against the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party government.

“The BJP has failed us,” they said. “No ST, no rest.”

The protestors belonging to the Tai Ahom community, native to this part of Assam, were demanding ST or Scheduled Tribe status which would give them access to reservations in educational institutions and government employment.

Milan Buragohain, the president of All Tai Ahom Students’ Union, said it has been over a decade since the BJP’s top leadership first promised to classify the Tai Ahoms and five other ethnic communities as tribal groups. In power in Assam since 2016, the party has consistently projected itself as the champion of “indigenous” communities, pitting them against Muslims of Bengali origin. But its claims rang hollow, Buragohain said.

“They talk about the protection of jati, mati and bheti,” he said, using the Assamese words for community, land and homestead. “But they have not done anything. This is shameful.”

The Tai Ahoms are one of six communities...

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