Assam govt circulates 1983 Nellie massacre report in Assembly

More than four decades after bloodshed, the Assam government on Tuesday circulated reports of two commissions in the assembly on violence in 1983, including the Nellie massacre which claimed over 2,000 lives, throwing spotlight on one of the state's bloodiest periods just a few months ahead of elections. Both the reports -- of Tewary Commission, which was officially constituted by the then chief minister Hiteswar Saikia of the Congress, and the non-official Mehta Commission -- had contradicting views on the Nellie massacre and other incidents of violence which took place as assembly polls were held during President's Rule in 1983 amid a boycott called by the protagonists of the Assam agitation against illegal foreigners. 
The Tewary Commission report was circulated in the assembly on the first day of the Winter Session, as sufficient copies were not available when it was originally tabled by the AGP-led government in 1987, and was therefore not handed to legislators at the time.The long-suppressed report, submitted in May 1984 and tabled in the Assembly in 1987, was finally circulated among MLAs on Tuesday, the opening day of the Winter Session.
The commission, headed by retired IAS officer T.P. Tewary, held the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and the Asom Gana Sangram Parishad (AGSP) “primarily responsible” for launching the anti-influx Assam Agitation and for its “consequences”. At the time, Assembly elections were held amid massive protests and very low voter turnout, culminating in a Congress victory and the end of nearly a year of President’s Rule. The panel said there was “overwhelming evidence” that bandhs, property destruction and other unrest during the agitation were organised on a “pre-planned and extensive scale”. Rejecting attempts to portray the 1983 disturbances as communal, the commission said “all sections of society suffered” and that attributing a communal motive was “entirely unwarranted”. Simultaneously, it acknowledged that Assamese anxieties over demographic change were rooted in reality. It suggested that minorities should proactively identify infiltrators to help build trust, and flagged land occupation by migrants as one of the “greatest irritants”.
Among its recommendations, the panel proposed special land protections similar to those in Jammu & Kashmir, restricting the transfer of immovable property to non-Assamese. It advised that defining an “Assamese” for this purpose could reasonably reference the NRC or minimum domicile criteria. While tribal belts and blocks already enjoy legislative protection, the commission suggested extending similar safeguards to valley districts. It also stressed that detection of illegal migrants and eviction of encroachers were “inter-linked”, noting that eviction drives had been halted since 1979.
The report reaffirmed that the composite character of Assamese society was an asset, cautioning that communalism and sectional politics could erode this strength. The 1983 unrest remains one of the darkest chapters in Assam’s history, with the Nellie massacre of February 18 — in which more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were slaughtered in a single night — standing as its most tragic symbol.
The Justice (retd.) T.U. Mehta Commission was constituted by Mukti Jujaru Sanmilan and the leaders of the Assam Movement after widespread violence erupted during the state Assembly elections in February 1983. The period, marked by the Assam Agitation against infiltration from 1979 to 1985, also witnessed the horrific Nellie massacre, where more than 2,100 people were reported killed in a single night.