GUWAHATI: Another phase of intense agitation by Bodo tribe groups is looming large over the region if the Union government fails to respond to their demand for meaningful negotiation by first week of December to find the final solution to their demand for a separate Bodoland state.
The agitating Bodo tribe groups from Assam staged a demonstration at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi to press for their long-standing demand and have announced a series agitation programme demanding a negotiated settlement of their issues.
The demonstration has been jointly led All Bodo Students Union (ABSU), pro-talks faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Progressive) and People’s Joint Action Committee on Bodoland Movement (PJACBM).
The organisations have announced a series of agitation from the next month if the Government of India fails to respond to their demands for meaningful dialogue to find final solution to their demand.
They have announced 24-hour National Highway Blockade in the 2nd Week of December, mass hunger strike in the last week of December 2017, economic blockade for 10 days in the last week of January, 2018.
The key demands of the Bodo groups are: creation of a Bodoland state from the Sankosh to Sadiya in the northern bank of Brahmaputra River in Assam; grant of political and land right of the Bodo tribe people living outside of the proposed Bodoland area under the provisions of the Constitution of India.
In a joint statement the agitating Bodo tribe groups today said, “The present BJP-led government in the Centre headed by Narendra Modi who had promised to resolve the Boro problem during the election campaign of 2014, has forgotten all tall promises made to Bodo people. The incumbent BJP-led government in Assam which came to power riding on poll promises of protecting jati (native people), mati (land) and bheti (foundation of the society) too has forgotten their promises and instead they are more interested in inviting more and more Hindu Bangladeshis to the state now.”
“In order to establish our historical prerogative, to ensure our political and land right, to assert our distinct identity with language and culture and also to eradicate the regional disparity of socio-economic development creation of Bodoland is a must. Our demand is historically and constitutionally legitimate, correct and justified. The Government of India is apathetic towards the movement and is playing the tricky duck and drake game with no sincerity to resolve the problem,” the agitating organisations lamented.
