Morung Express News Diphu | April 21 Hundreds of Karbi youth on Friday discarded their clothes and marched in the nude down the main town square of Diphu, the district headquarter of Karbi Anglong in protest against the failure of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) to address demands raised by a conglomerate of 24 organizations to safeguard their constitutional rights. The 24 organizations, which represent the schedule tribes living in KA district, had been urging the KAAC to frame act and rules for preparing new voters list and for conduct of election of the council as enjoined by paragraph 2 (7), based on paragraph 20 of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India. “Because act and rules for the conduct of Council Elections have not yet been made, and because the obsolete and defective rules of 1951 are still used by the KAAC as well as the state government the non tribal emigrants have taken away political power of the schedule tribe guaranteed by the Constitution of India…hence the naked demonstrations,” a press release issued by the 24 organizations read. It went on to state that the scheduled tribes who were earlier covered with a protective law are now “politically naked,” hence arising the need for a naked demonstration. The organizations lamented that due to “disobedience and dilutions of the provisions of the Sixth Schedule, all government funds for development, government job, land, trade and commerce reserved by the Sixth Schedule have been snatched away…” They demanded that the KAAC reveal as to why it is not exercising its constitutional powers and why it is not deleting the names of illegal migrants, foreigners and non-tribal persons from the council voter’s lists. It also condemned the “attitude of the Karbi Anglong, BJP” for trying to hold council elections without valid act and rules and with defective voters list. “We do not want delay in holding council elections. This imbroglio has happened because the BJP led autonomous council does not want to save the Karbis and other tribes people by making the act and rules for holding election,” it alleged.
