A Step Towards Long Term Peace In North-East

Kunal Bharti
Political & Social Analyst

On January 27, 2020, the Centre, the Assam government and Bodo groups have signed an agreement for peace and development. Government of India signed the historic agreement with the nine factions of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). According to the agreement, the Bodoland Territorial Area District will hold special rights for the locals. However, the outsiders will have to obtain “permit” to work in the territory. Bodos are the single largest community among the notified Scheduled Tribes in Assam. Basically the Bodo are a Tibeto-Burmese-speaking ethnic group in Assam. They are a part of the greater Bodo-Kachari family of ethno linguistic groups and are spread across north eastern India and clustered strongly in Assam, along the eastern Duars. Bodos are politically active and dominant in the Kokrajhar, Baksa, Udalguri and Chirang districts of the Bodoland autonomous region in the state of Assam. They constitute 6-7 % of the total population of Assam. The Bodo-Kachari were also some of the first people to rear silkworms and produce silk material. They were considered to be advanced in rice cultivation in Assam during this time period. They are also recognized as a plains tribe in the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. 

BTAD is spread over four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri. The BTAD and other areas mentioned under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution have been exempted from the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, that enables undocumented non-Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 to apply for Indian citizenship. The accord has been signed when there was misleading protest going around pan India against Citizenship ammendment act 2020. This new accord will definitely strengthen the relation of a federal structure of Centre and north eastern states. It also shows that Modi government is very much concerned towards unity & integrity, and national security of nation. This historic step taken by current government also empathizes its mainly agenda of ' SAB KA SAATH, SAB KA VIKAS ,SAB KA VISHWAS' towards building of new India.

Since long time, back bodo's were demanding for the separate state i.e Bodoland. For centuries, they survived sanskritisation without giving up their original ethnic identity. However in the 20th century, they had to tackle a series of issues such as illegal immigration, encroachment of their lands, forced assimilation, loss of language and culture.The 20th century also witnessed the emergence of Bodos as a leading tribe in Assam which pioneered the movements for safeguarding the rights of the tribal communities in the area. Since then, they have been consistently deprived of the political and socio-economic rights by successive state and central governments. The Bodos have not only become an ethnic minority in their own ancestral land but have also been struggling for their existence and status as an ethnic community.

The first organised demand for a Bodo state came in 1967-68 and was raised under the banner of the Plains Tribals Council of Assam (PTCA), a political outfit. The Assam Accord of 1985, gave rise to Bodo aspirations and in 1987, ABSU revived the Bodo statehood demand. Bodo Security Force which arose in 1986 as an armed group renamed itself NDFB, and later split into factions. The first Bodo accord was signed with the ABSU in 1993 when the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) renewed the demand. “Divide Assam fifty-fifty”, was a call given by the ABSU’s then leader, Upendra Nath Brahma. It led to the creation of the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) with some limited political powers.The Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) is constituted after the Centre, the Assam government and the ABSU sign a tripartite agreement. The BAC was given power over 38 subjects, with a 40-member General Council, including 5 members nominated by the state government, while rest of the seats were reserved for ST. But, soon a section of Bodo people rejected the accord, and claimed it was “inadequate” to meet the long-cherished political aspirations of the people. The Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), an armed insurgent group, formed in June 1996, launched its armed movement for a separate Bodoland state.

In 2003, the second Bodo Accord was signed by the extremist group Bodo Liberation Tiger Force (BLTF), the Centre and the state. This led to the creation of BTC,which is an autonomous body under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.The area under the BTC jurisdiction is officially called the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD)comprising of 3,082 villages in four districts— Kokrajhar, Chirang, Udalguri and Baska. However, ABSU continued with its movement of separate Statehood and different factions of NDFB continued to carry out hit-and-run operations, and disturbed peace. Alongside political movements, armed groups have also sought to create a separate Bodo state. In October 1986, the prominent group Bodo Security Force (BdSF) was formed by Ranjan Daimary. The BdSF subsequently renamed itself as the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), an organisation that is known to be involved in attacks, killings, and extortions.

We all know that Smaller States have been the new political mode of addressing basic issues that were otherwise left unresolved. However, fighting for a new state and reconstructing on a more sustainable democratic content are undoubtedly two different issues all together. One does not automatically promise the other, if there is anything to learn from the previous history of smaller States in India.

The signing of the agreement would end the 50-year-old Bodo crisis. Around 1500 cadres of NDFB(P), NDFB(RD) and NDFB(S) will be rehabilitated by Centre and Assam Government. They will be assimilated in the mainstream now. After the agreement, the NDFB factions will leave the path of violence, surrender their weapons and disband their armed organisations within a month of signing the deal.

Primarily, this Accord ends a truce with four factions of the NDFB after decades of armed movement that claimed over 4,000 lives. The agreement says that negotiations were held with Bodo organisations for a comprehensive and final solution to their demands were derived while keeping intact the territorial integrity of the State of Assam. The accord will successfully bring together leading stakeholders under one framework. People previously associated with armed resistance groups will enter the mainstream and contribute to the nation’s progress. It will enhance focus by Union government on tackling the issues of North-East so as to usher development in the region. This is reflected in Bru-Reang agreement signed on January 16, 2020 to end the humanitarian crisis in Meghalaya and Tripura, recent surrender of 644 armed cadres in Assam and surrender of 88 armed NLFT cadres in Tripura to bring them to mainstream. It will also further protect and popularise the unique culture of the Bodo people and will give them access to a wide range of development-oriented initiatives. It will bring peace, harmony and togetherness in the people of Assam.

As per the agreement, villages dominated by Bodos that were presently outside the BTAD would be included and those with non-Bodo population would be excluded. The memorandum of settlement says that the criminal cases registered against members of the NDFB factions for “non-heinous” crimes shall be withdrawn by the Assam government and in cases of heinous crimes it will be reviewed. The families of those killed during the Bodo movement would get Rs. 5 lakh each. A Special Development Package of Rs. 1500 Crore would be given by the Centre to undertake specific projects for the development of Bodo areas. A committee will decide the exclusion and inclusion of new areas in the BTAD. Subsequent to this alteration, the total number of Assembly seats will go up to 60, from the existing 40. The area under the jurisdiction of BTC was called the Bodo Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD).

In 2020 Accord, the BTAD was renamed to BTR (Bodoland Territorial Region). BTAD comprises Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri districts, accounting for 11% of Assam’s area. The new Accord provides for alteration of area of BTAD and provisions for Bodos outside BTAD. A commission appointed by the state government will examine and recommend if villages contiguous to BTAD and with a majority tribal population can be included into the BTR. Those villages, now in BTAD and with a majority non-tribal population can opt out of the BTR. This will lead to increase in the Bodo population in BTR and decrease in non-tribal population, leading to mitigation of inter-community clashes. The government will set up a Bodo-Kachari Welfare Council for focused development of Bodo villages outside BTAD. Both the representatives of the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) and of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) will be present in the committee. Bodos living in the hills would be conferred a Scheduled Hill Tribe status. Bodo language with Devanagari script would be the associate official language for the entire Assam. However, the agreement has not addressed the issue of “citizenship or work permit” for non-domiciles in the BTAD yet. Around 1500 cadres of NDFB will be rehabilitated and assimilated by the Central and the state governments.

Several of the provisions agreed upon in 2020 agreement were an extension of what was already in effect. It provides for more legislative, executive, administrative and financial powers to BTC. The amendments to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to improve the financial resources and administrative powers of BTC. The MoS states New Delhi and Dispur will take all necessary steps to rehabilitate the cadres, funding economic activities, vocational trading and recruitment in appropriate government jobs and to develop tea state of India.

PM modi on 7th Feb,2020 in his first rally in Assam after Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act last December said that "signing of the Bodo Accord was a historic agreement that will bring peace to the region".He also said that the Northeastern states were the worst sufferers of this reluctance. In his speech he even mentioned that bodo Accord brings to an end a problem that had been persisting for decades and marks the beginning of a new era of peace and progress and earlier, the North eastern states were considered to be recipient states, but today they are being seen as engines of growth.

The peace in Bodoland Territorial Region will depend on the evolving relationship between the Bodos, the dominant but not the majority in the BTR and other communities. It also depends on the final implementation of the accord and the ability of the state to rehabilitate the militants so as to prevent them from taking up anti-social activities.