Guwahati, May 30: The Assam government has decided to provide minority certificate to six communities – Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis. The proposal was passed on Monday in a state cabinet meeting at state capital Dispur.

The decision comes within months of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s statement that the definition of a minority needs to be reassessed.

The main opposition parties Congress and AIUDF has said that the Constitution has already defined who is a minority and have alleged that this new move is to divide the minorities of Assam.

Meanwhile, the BJP-led govt said for better reach-out of minority welfare schemes, individual identification of minorities is important.

This decision comes close on the heels of a recent comment of Assam CM Sarma on the definition of minorities. In March this year, while speaking in the State Assembly, he had said, “Minority definition must change district by district depending upon the geography, population and threat perception. There is no definition as to who are linguistic minorities. How many people need to speak a language to make the same a minority or majority language. From the Supreme court judgments, it is inferred that states are the unit of determining linguistic minority for states that were reorganised on the basis of language.”