GUWAHATI: A students’ organisation has revived the Bodoland statehood demand in Assam amidst the BJP’s claim of resolving the Bodo problem through the signing of the historic Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) pact.
In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the Kokrajhar district magistrate, the newly-formed Bodo National Students’ Union (BoNSU) said the Centre had, over the past 30 years, signed three peace accords with the Bodo leadership but failed to fulfil the aspirations of Bodos.
The students’ body lamented that although the Bodos had struggled for long, their demands for socio-political, socio-cultural and economic development continued to remain unfulfilled.
BoNSU president Bonjit Manjil Basumatary said the Bodos’ struggle for right to self-determination has its genesis in the British rule.
“As early as the 1930s, Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma, the then lone leader of the Bodos, had submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission demanding a political setup for the indigenous and tribal people of Assam. However, his demand for political administration was ignored by the British Raj. Even in the post-independence era, such demands were not met by successive governments,” Basumatary said.
In 1967, the Bodos had demanded the creation of a Union Territory “Udayachal”, by carving out an area of Assam from Sankosh to Sadiya along the foothills of Himalaya (Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh), following the realisation that tribal blocks and belts notified by the British were being acquired by rich immigrant landlords.
Later in the 1980s, the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) had launched a mass movement. Almost around the same time, a section of the Bodo youth had taken up arms and formed an insurgent group, disillusioned by the government’s apathy towards the Bodo movement.
Even as the struggle continued, the Assam government had formed the Bodoland Autonomous Council but the Bodos said it had failed to fulfil their socio-economic aspirations. Another accord, signed with insurgent group Bodo Liberation Tigers in 2003, had led to the creation of the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) but the movement continued. The BTR accord was signed in January 2020 with ABSU and four insurgent groups.
The BTC administers the four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri, falling under the BTR.