Opinion - Editorials   

The Bodo settlement

AFTER SEVERAL YEARS of struggle, marked by periodic eruptions of violence that was crippling normal life, a solution to the problem in those regions of Assam with a dominant Bodo population seems to be in sight with the signing of an accord to set up a Territorial Council to function as an autonomous administrative body within the State. The tripartite Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) entered into by the Union Home Ministry and the Assam Government with the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), could indeed be the basis for a lasting settlement of the crisis that has been affecting the region for over a decade now. While the details of the settlement and its implementation thereof would require the players — the political leadership in Assam and more importantly the leadership of the BLT — to act with a sense of purpose, the broad lines on which it has been drawn up are indeed encouraging. The BLT would serve its own cause and the interests of the tribals in the region by drawing lessons from the experience with the District Administration Council in the Darjeeling hill tracts and the manner in which the concept of autonomy was put into practice. The contours of the Bodo settlement (despite differences in detail), after all, are on lines similar to that of the accord the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader, Subash Ghising, agreed to within the framework of the Constitution. It is for this reason that the BLT would do well to draw the initial lessons on working the autonomous council from the experience of the Darjeeling Hill Council. It is another matter that the Council proposed in the Bodo accord falls within the scope of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution while the accord with the GNLF was not the same.

Another fact that needs to be taken into account is that there are several players involved in the Bodo agitation unlike in the Gorkhaland case. The BLT, for instance, cannot be seen as representing the aspirations of the region as a whole. It is a fact that the BLT is a platform that emerged (at least as a major player) only after the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) had entered into an agreement with the Union and the Assam Governments a few years ago. The terms on which the ABSU had settled have hardly been put into effect. The ABSU representatives, incidentally, are reported to have been present during the signing of the MoS but it has not been explained clearly as to whether the outfit too is party to this agreement. Apart from all these, there is the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), an outfit that has not only been engaged in an armed conflict with the state but also held on to the demand for a separate Bodoland, with its leaders speaking at various points of time of a solution outside the framework of the Constitution and its members are said to have links with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) too. True, the NDFB in recent times has climbed down to demand a separate State and in this sense sought a bifurcation of Assam. The fact that the tripartite agreement arrived at does not address any of these concerns is ground for some apprehension over the prospects of the settlement.

However, experience with similar movements in the past, whether it is in the Northeast or in other parts of the country, testifies that whenever there is a genuine commitment to autonomy on the part of New Delhi and the State capitals that helps restore the confidence of the people in such backward regions. The MoS in the case of the Bodo-dominated regions in Assam too will achieve its purpose only if the political leadership at all levels displays a sense of purpose and includes the people of the region in the democratic space. Similarly, the BLT leaders too will have to strive to involve at least the influential sections within the NDFB as well as in the ABSU in the Bodoland Territorial Council that will be set up soon, rather than reduce the 46-member body into an instrument for the self-preservation of its own leaders.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Cricket and doping
• The Bodo settlement
• India and new age alliances
• The U.K. and the U.S.
• Political reforms in the Gulf
• Justice on trial
• Misusing religion
• A different Mrs. Iyer
• The Columbia mystery
• Cleaning Ganga
• Cattle menace

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu