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| BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary (right) with Bodo leaders during a demonstration in Guwahati. Picture by Eastern Projections |
What is happening in Bodoland is seen by many as a blight that is visiting the Bodo people on account of the sins of their elders.
When the Plains Tribal Council of Assam (PTCA), the first political organisation spearheaded by the Bodos was formed in 1967 under the leadership of Modoram Brahma, the Bodos dominated the council, completely sidelining other plains tribals like the Koch, Rajbongshi, Kachari, Rabha, Hajong, Tiwas who separately might not make up a sizeable chunk of the plains tribal population but taken together are not an insignificant number.
While it is true that the Bodos are the single largest group among the plains tribal of Assam and also the most politically conscious and articulate having started a movement for a Union Territory — Udayachal in 1972, they are also seen as usurpers of the rights of the other plains tribes.
It was at the behest of Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma that the Bodos represented before the Simon Commission that certain percentage of seats in the Legislative Assembly and government jobs be reserved for tribals. Brahma was also instrumental in the formation of the Tribal League in 1930 to focus on the socio-economic problems of the tribes.
It is interesting how the Tribal League got transformed into the Tribal Sangha after 1947 and how its agenda changed from that of a group focusing on the socio-economic welfare of the tribes to become a socio-cultural organisation.
Be that as it may, the Bodos can be credited with a political consciousness that was rare among the other hills or plains tribes at that time.
How such politically progressive people are today unable to find their bearings and are struggling to understand their own dilemma is a cause of great concern among the other tribal neighbours.
Particularly disturbing is the regression of the Bodo people into a sort of inferno from where they are grappling to find a way out.
While the present literacy rate of Assam stands at 64.28 per cent that of the Bodos is only 33 per cent. This once culturally advanced group with leaders of worth like Upendra Nath Brahma, has surprisingly produced only four IAS and three IPS officers and only one from the IFS cadre.
These officers who have served some of the top institutions of the country such as the BSF and the NSG do not seem to want to come back to serve their own people.
Take for instance the present Governor of Meghalaya, Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, who retired as the director-general of the BSF in 2006 and later became Assam’s first chief information commissioner (CIC).
The Bodo people had pinned their hopes on him to provide, not the conventional kind of leadership which is politically partisan but to revolutionise his people and give them hope in a situation that is gloomy, murky and steeped in bloodshed and violence. But Mooshahary opted to be a faithful servant of the state which has rewarded him with a governorship.
Perhaps, the upcoming Bodo leaders are too idealistic to expect someone nurtured in the administrative crucible of this country and attended by the creature comforts it affords, to come back and unravel the imbroglio that has been created by a series of bad decisions and actions.
What the Bodos did to achieve that goal is neither honourable not humane. The ethnic cleaning cannot be forgotten so easily by those who today live in refugee camps. It has created so much bad blood and mistrust among the Santhals and Muslim population — the latter having been broadly labelled as “illegal immigrants” — that any hope of bringing sanity in Bodoland is at this time illusory.
Earlier, the petty politics played by the Bodos in the allocation of Legislative Assembly seats through the PTCA has also alienated the other plains tribes. While a section of evolved Assamese does empathise with the Bodos, the larger section is indifferent, having enough to deal with its own Ulfa problems.
The government at Dispur considers the Bodos a thorn in the flesh. With one section of Bodos making a strident demand for a separate state and another using the instrument of violence to demand a sovereign Bodoland, and both unwilling to engage with Dispur, the Assam government decides that it is best to play Nero. Left in the lurch is the All Bodo Students’ Union (Absu) which has ostensibly decided, (at least from what can be gleaned in conversations with them), to remain an apolitical force for now. Absu had in the past played an active role in guiding the political life of the Bodos. They have aligned with one or other political group and indulged in quid pro quos wherein former Absu president U.G. Brahma was sent to Rajya Sabha.
At this point of time though, Absu is stunned by the relentless killing in their homeland. What is causing immense pain and trauma is the fratricide that is now threatening to divide the Bodo community like never before. While the Indian intelligence agencies have been credited with creating these splits and fissures that have factionalised the militant groups, it must be said that such developments are not a one-sided affair. Hunger for power and political privileges among a section of Bodos have become the Achilles heel of the entire community.
Elections to the Bodoland TerritorialAreas District are fast approaching. Already the armed groups are positioned to help some against other contenders. Absu have expressed serious apprehensions about the likely fallout of the elections. When politicians use the militia to achieve their agenda, blood will spill over all of Bodoland. Absu have knocked on all doors in the corridors of power hoping they could somehow prevail upon the powers that be to stop the bloodletting in Bodoland. So far they have met with little success. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi has refused to give them a hearing. Senior police officials wring their hands in despair saying they can do nothing since decisions on the posting and transfer of police officials in Bodoland are taken at the highest political levels.
Clearly the scene is as incoherent as it is fraught with ambiguities and doublespeak. The Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) Accord was signed in 1993 but the Bodoland movement became more violent during the later part of the nineties.
In 2003, the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Accord was signed as a closure to the 15-year-long Bodo movement. But the terms of the accord are yet to be implemented in letter and spirit even today. Cosy in their seats of power the leaders have perhaps forgotten what they even demanded at the time. This is Bodoland’s biggest dilemma. They have been let down by their own leaders; they are politically and socially fragmented and have become pawns of different masters. Bodoland is suffering from a cancer that would require the intervention of a political maestro. Who that person or persons will be is difficult to say at this stage.