GUWAHATI, March 2 — The signing of the Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) by the Union and State Governments with the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) may not bring back the long-awaited peace and normalcy to the proposed Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) areas. While the militants of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) have denounced the MoS as the product of the BLT’s “capitulation” in matters of principle and ideology, the Sanmilita Janaosthiya Sangram Samiti (SJSS), representing over 20 organisations of the non-Bodos living in the BTC areas, has rejected the MoS as “one-sided”, burnt its copies, announced its resolve to go for a 100-hour Assam bandh the moment BTC is formally declared and has, with immediate effect, banned entry of the Union and State Ministers in the BTC areas.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, SJSS chief convenor Phani Medhi, who is also the president of the Sadou Asam Koch-Rajbongshi Sanmilani, SJSS deputy chief convenor Brajen Mahanta, its convenor Tridip Pati Sinha, central executive committee members Hareswar Barman and Pradip Adhikary also said that soon the MoS would be challenged in the court of law. For, they said, the BTC MoS does not have the sanction of law, nor does if have any sanction of the Indian Constitution. “We are now fighting it politically, as it is rather an imposition of some illegalities and politically motivated wishes of a handful of politicians,” they said.
How do they explain the “one-sidedness” of the MoS? They said that this was apparent even from the very first paragraph of the document, which stated, “The Government of India and the Government of Assam have been making concerted efforts to fulfil the aspirations of the Bodo people...” But can the attempts at fulfilling the aspirations of the Bodos be termed as biased, illegal? They said that the MoS had failed to take into consideration even the needs and aspirations of the other tribal groups like the Saranias, Madalus and the Rabhas living in the proposed BTC areas.
And on the issue of the autonomy to the Bodos, they referred to the recommendations made by the three-men expert committee, led by Dr Bhupinder Singh. This expert committee, in its report in 1990, opposed territorial autonomy and suggested multi-layered satellite autonomy for the Bodos and the Misings. For, the SJSS office-bearers said that the Bhupinder Singh Committee had observed that as the areas demanded by the Bodos and the Misings were inhabited by various other groups of people, there could not be any territorial autonomous council for the Bodos or for the Misings.
Infact, the Bodos were found to be not more tan 20 per cent of the population of the area they had been demanding during the 1990 “Divide Assam 50”50” agitation. When pointed out to the fact that it was the URMCA (earlier-United Reservation Movement Council of Assam, and now, United Revolutionary Movement Council of Assam), which demanded restructuring of Assam’s policy on a federal basis in the late 1980s and 1990s, Sri Mahanta, also the advisor of the URMCA and Sri Barman, also the president of the URMCA, said that they were not opposed to the idea of granting autonomy to the Bodos, but what they were opposed to was the idea of granting territorial autonomy to them under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
Why? The SJSS office-bearers said that they were sure that the provisions of the Sixth Schedule would make the non-Bodos, who constitute 80 per cent of the population in the BTC areas, to lose all their democratic and constitutional rights. The Bodo MoS has struck at the roof of democracy, ie rule of the majority and rights of the minority. It has made the minority to rule the majority, they said. When pointed out to clause 4.3 of the MoS, which states that the settlement rights, transfer and inheritance of property, etc, of the non-tribals living in the BTC areas will be suitably incorporated in para 3 of the Sixth Schedule, the SJSS office-bearers said that they cold not believe that there was any sincerity to keep intact the rights of the non-Bodos in the BTC areas.
Moreover, they said, the creation of the BTC will lead to many more agitations by the other ethnic groups in other areas of the State for territorial councils and this will further the ethnic conflicts in the State in an accelerated manner. And finally, the process of assimilation in the State will be stalled, they claimed. The MoS is infact a product of the Central and State Governments’ policy to appease the gun-toting Bodo leaders. This has set a bad precedent for the State’s society, said the SJSS office-bearers.
They also described the Bodo leaders as chauvinists and said that these leaders had turned the Bodo nationality into an oppressor nationality today. But, they maintained that the spearhead of their agitation was not directed against the common Bodo people. It is directed against Bodo chauvinism and the Governments in the State and at the Centre, they said. The SJSS office-bearers also apprehended a massive ethnic cleansing drive by the Bodo leaders this time also, but warned that this time there would be resistance.
They also refused to believe the veracity of clause 13 of the MoS related to the rehabilitation of the people affected by ethnic disturbances and described it to be a mere eye wash. When pointed out to the possibility of a spate of ethnic disturbances in the BTC area because of their opposing the Bodo MoS, the SJSS office-bearers said that those who signed the MoS would be held responsible for such situations.
When asked for their comment on the solution to the problem, they said that the Bodo MoS should be scrapped and a round table conference, involving all the ethnic groups – including the Bodos, the non-Bodos and the political parties and the Union and State Governments, should be held. This conference will come to a conclusion on the issue of autonomy on the basis of Dr Bhupinder Singh Committee’s recommendations, the SJSS office-bearers said.