Guwahat: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma presented the Assam Prohibition of Polygamy Bill, 2025, at the beginning of the Winter session of the state assembly, aiming to outlaw polygamy and introduce a sweeping social change.
The bill was formally laid on the floor with Speaker Biswajit Daimary’s consent, but many opposition members—including those from Congress, CPI(M) and Raijor Dal—were absent, having staged a walk‑out earlier that day.
Those MLAs had left the chamber after a talk about the late Assamese singer Zubeen Garg. Consequently, the bill was moved without them and will be debated and potentially passed in the future.
In another significant move, the Chief Minister also tabled the report of Justice (retd) T.U. The Mehta Commission, which examined the widespread violence during the 1983 assembly elections. That period was among the most turbulent in Assam’s history, coinciding with the peak of the anti‑influx agitation that lasted from 1979 to 1985. One of the darkest incidents was the Nellie massacre in February 1983, where more than 2,100 people lost their lives in a single night. Despite the report’s importance, it was not discussed in the house after being presented.
The government also circulated printed copies of the T.P. Tewary Commission report, which investigated the 1983 disturbances, including the Nellie massacre. The commission, led by retired IAS officer T.P. Tewary, was set up on July 14, 1983, and finished its report in May 1984 for the then Congress government. Though formally tabled by the AGP government in 1987, the report had been largely inaccessible; the CM highlighted that for decades only one copy resided in the Speaker’s office, limiting legislative access.
Following a recent cabinet decision, both hard‑copy and digital versions of the report are now available to MLAs during the current session to promote transparency and broader dissemination.
The Chief Minister made clear that the legislature will not debate the Tewary Commission’s findings. Thus, the opening day of the Winter session featured a landmark social reform bill alongside renewed attention to one of Assam’s darkest chapters in its political and social history.
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