Thursday, January 30, 2025
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All is well in Bodoland but decentralisation of power is must: Bodoland chief

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Kokrajhar (Assam), Jan 28: The Chief Executive Member of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), Pramod Boro, said on Tuesday that the 2020 Bodo Peace Accord with the Union government and the Assam government was unique as all revolutionary groups from different ideologies came together to sign it.

Now there is peace in Bodoland (Assam) but the future of peace will depend on the state and the Union government, he added. Boro told IANS, “Now we don’t support any agitation.

Guns should be there only in the hands of defence personnel.” On the occasion of five years of the Bodoland Peace Accord, the BTC Chief said, “All is well in Bodoland. The earlier situation was not good but now all is well.

I am happy, I am an Indian. Only Army personnel should have the gun, we don’t want to see local youths with guns in their hands.” He added: “The political movement is now settled. Democratic and underground movement is now resolved. It was quite tough to bring together ideologically different revolutionary groups and sign the accord, as some of them were demanding a separate state while some were seeking autonomy. When the Assam agitation began, all tribals participated. But after the 1980 Assam accord, tribals were ignored and this led to the Bodoland movement in 1987 which resulted in a lot of violence. Other tribal groups also came together in this agitation, which resulted in hundreds of killings, people died during the agitation.”

“One armed group came with the idea of a separate state while on the other side political movement began. We supported the political movement. Even armed group ceased their agitation during the Kargil conflict as they believed in one India,” he said.

“The finalising of the accord took 10 years. The underground NDP also undertook talks with the Centre and the Assam government. All stakeholders came together and sat down to resolve the issues. The main priority was to end armed conflicts in Bodoland, which finally led to the 2020 peace accord. Now all agitating people are in the mainstream,” Boro added.

He said that by March 2025, a vision document will be published listing all demands before the Centre. However, Boro added that still, no major industry is there in the Bodoland region and other infrastructure issues are to be looked into. Youth migrating to other parts of the country is also a major issue here, he said.

“During the violence period, all banks shifted from Bodoland. Now funding is a problem here as banks are not there in the region. Even as all businessmen too had left the region. The new Bodoland council is now trying to bring these institutions back to the region.”

The Bodoland Chief said they need around Rs 5,000 crore for roads only while the government gives only Rs 800 crore as annual budget. He added: “Bodoland has also demanded a Bodo regiment in the Indian Army and our demand is being mulled over. We also want Bodoland’s youth to be recruited into paramilitary forces, the territorial army and the Agnipath scheme.

Some recruitments have been done but the numbers are small, he said. The BTC Chief said, “It depends on devolution and decentralisation of power whether armed agitation will resurface or not. Trying to balance all authority so that there is no going back to agitation. If Centre and state see these things in right perspective then things will remain in balance.” Boro said, “The intellectual class gives lots of ideas during the agitation but nobody comes back after peace prevails.”

On the current accord, he said that provisions of the accord are an ongoing process and if everything is resolved without or with the accord is fine for us both ways. The present leadership has a holistic approach and all issues will be resolved with time, he added. On issues of full statehood demand, Boro said, “We signed the accord for the community but the aspiration for a separate state might be there. Whether it’s right or wrong needs to be analysed. We should not go for that kind of agitation which is not justified.”

“Since the leadership heard our aspirations we signed the accord. I can only air my views but people have to decide their future. We signed the accord as the need was there to end violence.”

IANS

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