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India's autonomy for tribals a step for
peace
By Ranjit Devraj
NEW
DELHI - India's creation on Monday of an autonomous
council for the Bodo tribals is expected go a long way
in meeting their aspirations and bringing peace to a
fertile, trouble-torn area sandwiched by the Bhutanese
border and the Brahmaputra river in northeastern Assam
state.
The establishment of the Bodoland
Territorial Council (BTC) comes after a tripartite
memorandum of settlement - signed on Saturday by the
central government, the Assam state government and the
Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) chairman Hagrama Basumatary
- that aims to end the 15 years of armed struggle for a
separate Bodo homeland and bring development to the
long-neglected region.
The settlement is another
feather in the cap for Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, who just two weeks ago sat down for talks with
the leader of the powerful National Socialist Council
for Nagaland, Thuingaleng Muivah, for a permanent end to
the half-a-century old Naga insurgency in the northeast.
Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, who
also holds the key interior portfolio, said that the
memorandum of settlement would enable the central
government to directly intervene in the economic
development of the Bodoland council, which comprises the
four Assam districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baska and
Udalguri.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi,
present at the signing ceremony, said that at least
30,000 illegal Bangladeshi settlers have been identified
in the Bodo areas and that it was now up to the central
government to evict or deport them
The agreement
is designed to accommodate the economic, educational and
linguistic aspirations of the Bodos, who form a distinct
ethnic group under threat from massive immigration from
adjoining Indian states and from neighboring Bangladesh.
To this end, of the 46 seats in the BTC, 30
would be reserved for tribals, five for non-tribal
residents and five would be open, said R C A Jain,
secretary in the interior ministry.
Six seats
would be reserved for nominations from among
unrepresented groups while there are additional
safeguards to ensure the protection of the rights of
non-tribals in the area, Jain said, answering questions
from journalists soon after the signing ceremony.
The Bodo stir, marked by violent ethnic riots,
has left in its wake refugee camps set up for riot
victims in Kokrajhar, the capital of the BTC and in
Bongaigaon, best known for its petrochemical complex set
up to process crude oil from the oil-rich region.
Jain said that the central government would soon
table an amendment to the constitution in parliament to
give the BTC constitutional status and allow the holding
of elections to the council. As part of the settlement,
cases pending against militants and their leaders are to
be withdrawn, the Bodo language given recognition and
the area given handsome US$100 million aid package.
Also thrown in is a centrally funded Central
Institute of Technology is planned to be set up in
Kokrajhar, the capital of the BTC, that would impart
technological and vocational education and eventually
upgraded to the status of a state university.
Saturday's memorandum is the fruit of 10 years
of negotiations between New Delhi and the powerful All
Bodo Students Union (ABSU), which resulted in the Bodo
insurgent groups announcing a unilateral suspension of
armed hostilities against security forces in July 1999.
The Indian government responded by the
announcement in March 2000 of suspension of operations
against Bodo insurgents and deferment of a proposed ban
on the BLT, the most powerful of the insurgent groups,
under anti-terrorist laws. The group is expected to
disarm as part of the settlement.
Opposition to
the BTC has come from the banned United Liberation Front
of Assam (ULFA), which circulated pamphlets declaring
that the arrangement would "only create more political
chaos", and divide its goal of an independent Assam of
which Bodoland would only be a part.
"Once the
BTC is formed, we will not only lose our political
identity but will be driven out by the Bodos, who have
already been systematically attacking non-Bodos to clear
the proposed BTC area," the pamphlet said.
ULFA
and another Bodo militant outfit, the National
Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), have in the past
shared bases and logistics in the jungles of southern
Bhutan, whose government recently pledged to flush out
sanctuaries for anti-India insurgents.
According
to R C A Jain, the NDFB, which is committed to continue
the struggle for a separate country for the Bodos, now
stands completely marginalized.
The Assam state
government has also been accused of going slow on the
creation of the BTC, which would whittle down its
authority in the area, by Urkhao Gwra Brahma, one of the
leaders of the Bodo movement and currently a member of
the Rajya Sabha or upper house of parliament.
Brahma said the success of the dialogue between
the government and the Bodo Liberation Tigers was owing
to the fact that the insurgent group readily came to the
negotiating table with no preconditions and enjoyed
broad support from a people fed up with violence.
(Inter Press Service)
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