GUWAHATI: Former Assam Assembly Speaker and sitting Sivasagar MLA Pranab Kumar Gogoi passed away at a Guwahati hospital on Monday night. He was suffering from age-related ailments.
Born in 1936 in Dibrugarh, the Congress veteran, who was an advocate by profession, was first elected to the Assembly in 2001.
The body will be taken to his native place Sivasagar for performance of the last rites on Tuesday. Politicians cutting across party lines have mourned the demise.
During the term of previous Congress government, he had come out with a definition of the term “Assamese”. However, some opposition parties staged a protest in the Assembly on the ground that they were not consulted.
The definition of Assamese is imperative as Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, signed in 1985 at the end of six-year-long Assam Agitation, says, “Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people”.