Bodo leaders warn of Gorkha-type stir if demands not met
GUWAHATI/NEW DELHI: As the more intense than the Gorkha agitation, the separate statehood campaign, Gorkha-dominated north Bengal if the current tripartite talks with the recently revived the movement. areas continue to reel under a violent government did not yield any results on Although a long-standing demand, campaign for statehood, it seems to separate statehood. a fresh agitation erupted after the West have triggered similar sentiments in He demanded that both the central Bengal government tried to make Assam’s Bodo Territorial Area Districts and Assam governments find a way to Bangla mandatory in schools across (BTAD) that threaten to destabilise the create a separate Bodoland sooner than the state. Similarly, the five-decade-old entire northeast. later or be prepared to face never-before Bodoland issue has also witnessed fresh
“There is a reason why Gorkhas have difficulties in the days to come. agitations against the government since lost faith in the government. They have According to Bodo groups, the 2016, after years of silence. been betrayed several times and the creation of a Bodo Territorial Council The leaders accuse the government current outrage is a result of that. (BTC), on the lines of Gorkha Territorial of betrayal.
Similarly, in Bodoland also there are Administration (GTA) against the Bodos — Assam’s biggest tribal some issues, which will escalate soon. demand of statehood “is a farce” as they community — claim the BJP was
“Despite the Bodoland accord, the were yet to see the transfer of actual not even ready to discuss the issue of promises made therein have not been power under which the community Bodoland any more despite making fulfilled yet. This is leading to a trust could prosper. promises in this regard during the 2014 deficit in the government,” Biswajit Gorkha-majority areas in West elections. Bodo leaders claim they were Daimary, Bodoland People’s Front Bengal — Darjeeling, Kalimpong and rebuffed by BJP leaders whenever they leader and member of the Rajya Sabha Kurseong — are witnessing violent tried to approach them in the past one from Assamyear.said.protestsastheGorkhaJanmukti CHe warned of a violent protest, even Morcha (GJM), which is spearheading alling the GTA and the BTC “unconstitutional” as the actual powers had not been transferred to the bodies, Biswajit Daimary said that promises — such as creation of various departments and various posts under the BTC — were yet to be fulfilled even after over a decade of the creation of the BTC.
“Not meeting the promises is what has anguished Bodos.
Creation of posts and departmental offices are not the works of the BTC but the central and state governments,” said Biswajit Daimary, adding that if this attitude continued, a movement similar to the one by Gorkhas was the next course. “The current Gorkha-type situation will definitely arise in BTAD.
The state and the Centre will have to face the consequences,” said Biswajit Daimary. Former rebel leader and chief of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (R) Ranjan Daimary said: “Long before the Gorkhaland movement, the Bodos started the movement for a separate state some 50 years ago.