Bodo students & organizations demand creation of Bodoland State, stage protest in Kokrajhar

Our Correspondent

Kokrajhar: The All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU), National Democratic Front of Boroland Progressive, People’s Joint Action Committee for Boroland Movement (PJACBM) and people of proposed Bodoland area as a whole, joined the massive sit-in- in every district headquarter to demand the creation of separate Bodoland state on Thursday. The representatives of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS) also joined the movement.

In Kokrajhar, the demonstration was led by the general secretary of the ABSU, Lawrence Islary. After three hours sit-in, the protesters submitted memorandum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah through the Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner, urging him to take initiatives to create separate state of Bodoland as early as possible.

In the memorandum signed by ABSU general secretary Lawrence Islary and other movement group leaders, it was stated that the Bodoland movement organizations and people of Bodoland region believed that the manner in which the Ministry of Law and Justice had issued the notification invoking powers under Article 370 (1) of the Constitution, it was obvious that creation of Union Territories of Ladakh without a legislature and Jammu and Kashmir with legislature was a decision of political convenience. The leaders said that it was also obvious that the BJP had sufficient majority in both the Houses to create new States/Union Territories. They also said the BJP was in favour of creation of small States as per its Bhubaneshwar Convention of 1996 and hence there was no excuse for not creating other States that were demanding separation from the existing ones.

The movement leaders said that it was time for the government to immediately create Bodoland state in order to protect the identity and culture of the indigenous Bodo people and ensure permanent peace in the region.

The memorandum further said that since the time of creation of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand, the policy of reorganization of Indian States had been going on by parliamentary process and it was the NDA government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2003 which created the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) under the 6th Schedule of the Indian Constitution with the promise to consider the question of Bodoland as and when the appropriate time came. Before that also in 1993, the then Congress government under the leadership of PV Narasimha Rao created Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) under the State Act with the same promise. During the period from 1993 to 2018, 25 long years had elapsed and four new States had been created but the issue of Bodoland had been left out by every successive government, stated the memorandum.

Due to relentless discrimination, utter negligence and suppression in all walks of life by the administration led by the dominant communities, the Boro people have become marginalized and have been forced to live as second class citizens in their ancestral land. Their land has been encroached upon, their language, culture and identity are at stake, said the movement leaders.

The movement group demanded a national policy with regard to the issue of settlement of Bodoland state, to expedite the process of dialogue on Bodoland state issue at political level, to ensure political rights to the Bodos living in Assam outside the proposed Bodoland area and to grant ST Hills status to the Bodos living in Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao.

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