Guwahati, April 10: The Assam government is facing a new problem on the Bodo front with activists of the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) mounting pressure on their leaders to postpone their proposed “farewell to arms”.
The BLT members want to retain their weapons till the Bodos of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills districts are granted Scheduled Tribe (Hills) status and accorded reservation benefits in areas under the three other autonomous councils of the Rabhas, Tiwas and Mishings.
Sources close to the BLT top brass told The Telegraph today that members of the outfit were feeling “betrayed” by the state government as no Bill on granting ST (Hills) status was passed in the just-concluded budget session of the Assembly. The Assembly created the Bodoland Autonomous Council (Repeal) Act to facilitate the creation of the proposed Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), but the state government failed to move a Bill on the other two issues in spite of agreeing to do so in the new Bodo Accord signed with the BLT.
The sources said that top BLT leaders, including its chairman Hagrama Basumatary, had rushed to New Delhi to seek the Centre’s intervention in the matter. The BLT leaders are likely to convey to the Union home ministry their reservations about laying down arms immediately after the formation of the interim Bodoland council.
The BLT leadership had agreed to dissolve their organisation and surrender arms within a week of the interim council being sworn in. Immediately after the Bodo accord was signed, the outfit declared that its members would lay down arms before deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani at a function in Kokrajhar.
“The Bodoland Autonomous Council (Repeal) Act was created only on the last day of the budget session, which indicates lack of sincerity in implementing the Bodo accord. The other issues were ignored, though the state government had assured the BLT and other Bodo leaders that the relevant bills would be passed in the same session,” Bodoland Demand Legislature Party legislator Biswajit Daimari said.
The Tarun Gogoi government, however, maintains that the Centre had “only agreed to sympathetically consider” inclusion of the Bodos of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills in the ST (Hills) list.
The Centre is likely to move a Bill in Parliament this month for amendments to the Sixth Schedule. This will facilitate the creation of an interim Bodoland Territorial Council for a period of six months.
Representatives of the BLT, the state government and the Centre signed the Bodo accord in New Delhi on February 10.