NEW DELHI, Jan 21 ? The shifting stands of the Assam Government and hawks within the Bodo leadership have emerged as the prime factor for the breakdown of peace talks with the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) leading to a stalemate. While both the Assam government and the BLT packed their bags and left for Assam, the sudden turn of events, however, left the Central Government peeved. The draft Bodo Accord was kept ready and an appointment with Deputy Prime Minister, LK Advani was fixed for his presence in the accord signing ceremony before the deadlock forced the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials to call off the tripartite talks and extend the ceasefire for a month.
Even as the Bodos and the State Government are blaming each other for the failure of the talks, the entire peace process is now very delicately poised. The final round of talks next month, likely to be held before the expiry of the ceasefire term, would be very crucial in that on its outcome would depend the fate of the Bodo peace process.
According to the Bodo leadership, the impasse is because of the sudden U-turn by the Assam Government, which after agreeing to keep the 10 seats unreserved went back on the understanding. The sudden about turn is because of the apparent political pressure on the Gogoi government. The Bodos are insisting that the 10 seats should be unreserved thereby leaving them open for tribal candidates to contest. The Assam Government, on the other hand, apprehends that keeping them unreserved would hamper the possibility of the non-Bodos getting elected to the proposed Bodo Territorial Council (BTC).
A senior leader of the Bodo movement and Rajya Sabha MP UG Brahma, however, disagrees saying that keeping the 10 seats reserved for non-tribals would seriously hinder the rights of the Bodo people to exercise their democratic rights. ?We are not against the government?s concern for security and safety of the non-Bodos but at the same time the Bodo people must be allowed to exercise their democratic rights to elect their representatives,? he added. But the Assam government officials were quick to point out. What about the rights of the non-Bodo in the 30 reserved seats? If the rights of the Bodos in the unreserved seats must be respected then so must be the rights of the non-Bodo in the reserved seats, they argued.
The State government it may be mentioned here has already made its stand clear that it is not about to review its stand on reservation of the 10 seats for the non-Bodos. A stand it maintained at the talks yesterday. The Bodos, on the other hand, said a new formula should be formulated under which a few seats at least should be kept unreserved. The Bodos have already hinted that they are willing to review their stand in the event of a new formula being a adopted.