An organisation named All India Bodo People’s National League for Bodoland Statehood has announced the revival of the Bodoland statehood movement right ahead of the elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).
Bodos are the single largest community among the Scheduled Tribes in Assam. They are a Part of the larger umbrella of Bodo-Kachari, the Bodos make up about 5-6% of Assam’s population.
Bodo state came under the political party Plains Tribals Council of Assam in 1967-68. The armed group Bodo Security Force arose, later renamed itself ‘National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB)’, an organisation that is known to be involved in attacks, killings, and extortions. It later split into halves.
The All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) renewed the demand. A fallout of the Assam Movement (1979-85), whose culmination with the Assam Accord which addressed the demands of protection for the “Assamese people”, leading the Bodos to launch a movement to protect their own identity.
Indian security forces launched extensive operations against the NDFB, causing the latter to flee to bordering Bhutan in 1990.
In Bhutan, the group faced stiff counter-insurgency operations by the Indian Army and the Royal Bhutan Army in the early 2000s.
The ABSU-led movement from 1987 lead up to a 1993 Bodo Accord, which paved the way for a Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC), but ABSU withdrew its agreement and renewed its demand for a separate state.
The second Bodo Accord was signed by the extremist group Bodo Liberation Tiger Force (BLTF), the Centre and the state. This led to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in 2003. BTC is an autonomous body under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The area under the jurisdiction of BTC was called the Bodo Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD)
The Central government then signed a tripartite agreement with the state government and different Bodo groups, including four factions of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), for a “permanent” solution to the Bodo issue.
It provided for “alteration of area of BTAD” and “provisions for Bodos outside BTAD” The BTAD was renamed Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR). It provides for more legislative, executive, administrative and financial powers to BTC. Provision for rehabilitation of surrendered militants of NDFB and bringing a special development package of Rs. 1,500 crore for the region.
According to the newly formed organisation, the new 2020 accord has been a betrayal of the Bodo people. Besides being an inferior accord, it prescribes a reduction of the area currently under the BTC. The accord has a provision for excluding from the BTR villages with more than 50% non-Bodos and including villages with more than 50% Bodo people left out of the BTC map after the 2003 accord.
