Centre revives talks on Bodo issues

The Centre has revived the Bodo dialogue process after a gap of over one year, with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh taking fresh initiative to resolve the vexed Bodo problem.

• A round of tripartite talks involving the Centre, the Assam government and a joint delegation of the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) and the People’s Joint Action
• Committee for Boroland Movement (PJACBM) was held where the Home Minister assured that he would personally take charge and keep the dialogue process going.
• Singh’s intervention came after the Bodo leaders urged him to nominate a senior Central minister to oversee the negotiations.
• The Home Minister responded by saying that he would himself take the initiative and see that the dialogue process is not delayed.
• The Bodos have been calling for solution to the Bodoland statehood demand, grant of ST (Hills) status to Bodos living in Karbi Anglong and land and political rights to the Bodos living outside the proposed Bodoland area.

The Bodo insurgency in Assam:

• Assam, one of the seven states of the northeastern region of India, has long remained one of the most volatile and sensitive regions in the country because of the problems of insurgency, ethnic conflict, pressure of migration, underdevelopment etc. Bodos, the largest plains tribe of Assam started an armed struggle for a separate state in the mid-1980s.
• This armed struggle led to ethnic cleansing of the non-Bodos along the north bank of the Brahmaputra. The Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) Accord was signed in 1993 and the Bodoland movement became more violent during the later part of the 1990s.
• In February 2003, the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Accord was signed to end the one-and-a-half decade long Bodo movement.
• The success of this new Accord will solely depend upon proper implementation of its changes and the cooperation between the Bodo and non-Bodo communities.
• The non-Bodos within the proposed BTC area are opposing the new Accord, as under the modified Sixth Schedule of the Constitution it provides special facilities to 25 per cent of the Bodos at the cost of 75 per cent non-Bodos within the proposed BTC area.
• This new Accord under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution may give birth to some new ethnic problems in Assam.

By: Ziyaur Rahman