Mehta, Tewary Reports on 1983 Assam Unrest Placed Before Assembly

Forty-two years after one of the darkest and most violent chapters in Assam’s political history, the report of the Justice (Retd.) T.U. Mehta Commission was finally laid in the Assam Assembly on Tuesday. But the tabling, instead of opening long-awaited conversations on truth and accountability, unfolded under a quiet, uncomfortable silence—no discussion was permitted.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma placed the Mehta Commission’s findings before the House during the Winter Session, alongside printed copies of the T.P. Tewary Commission report on the Nellie massacre—one of Independent India’s most horrific communal bloodbaths where more than 2,100 lives were lost in a single winter night on February 18, 1983.

The Assam Assembly elections of 1983, held amid the height of the Assam Agitation (1979–1985), were marked by public boycott, state repression, and widespread violence. The Mehta Commission was constituted not by the government, but by Mukti Jujaru Sanmilan and leaders of the Assam Movement, determined to bring facts to light at a time when official narratives were in question.

The Tewary Commission, headed by retired IAS officer T.P. Tewary and tasked with probing the disturbances, submitted its final report to the Congress government in May 1984. It was tabled once by the AGP government in 1987—but many legislators insist they never actually received copies. Sarma himself previously claimed that only a single copy was ever submitted to the Speaker and never distributed.

On Tuesday, the BJP-led coalition government—for the first time—placed printed copies of the Tewary report on MLAs’ desks, and digital versions are now being circulated after a recent Cabinet decision.

Yet, despite the weight of history inside the Assembly walls, not a single minute of debate or reflection was allowed on the findings. The Chief Minister bluntly stated that there will be no discussion on the report at this time.

A Document Finally Surfaces — But Justice Still Waits

For thousands of families who lived through the trauma, and for generations that inherited its unresolved questions, the tabling should have signaled the beginning of truth-telling. Instead, the silence felt deliberate.

The two reports—one on the riots across the state, the other on the massacre in Nellie—could reshape narratives that have long been politically manipulated, suppressed, or selectively interpreted. They could reopen conversations on accountability, government failures, state violence, and the depth of communal wounds.

But without discussion, transparency remains half-open, justice still out of reach.

Why Now? A Political Moment

The timing raises its own questions.

With elections approaching and ethnic identity again dominating public discourse, critics say the reports may become political instruments rather than historical reckonings. Supporters argue that making them public is the first step toward closure.

Either way, the documents have returned to the floor of the Assembly—where they had always belonged.

History is back in the room — but speech is not

The Mehta and Tewary Reports, once locked away in archives and political silence, now sit visibly before every legislator. But until their pages are studied, debated, and confronted, wounds from 1983 will remain unhealed.

The people of Assam have waited forty years. On Tuesday, they received the papers. What they did not receive—yet again—was answers.

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