‘BTR Accord has failed to meet demands of Bodos’ Says Sansuma Khunggur Bwiswmutiary

Our Correspondent

KOKRAJHAR: Former Lok Sabha MP Sansuma Khunggur Bwiswmutiary, who is also the president of the World Bodo National Confederation and the World Confederation of Mongoloid Origin People, said he was not happy with the BTR Accord signed between the Government of India, Government of Assam and ABSU and four factions of the NDFB, including UBPO. He termed the Accord as suicidal for the Bodos.

Bwiswmuthiary said that the 3rd Bodo Accord signed in New Delhi at the cost of the overall interest of the indigenous rights and privileges of the aboriginal Bodo people had failed to meet the demands of the Bodos. He also demanded the Government of India to either scrap the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or to introduce and implement the Inner Line Permit system in the entire north-eastern region, particularly in Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya.

The former MP said, “The piecemeal solution can never meet the genuine hopes and aspirations of the Bodo people in all the spheres of human development, including the vital question related to their survival and existence and safety and security as well.” He said that so far as the serious apprehension of the Bodo civil society with regard to the dire necessity of extension of the boundary on the eastern limit beyond the present day Udalguri district and also the expansion of the southern periphery of the Bodoland territory was concerned, this accord was not at all acceptable as the villages predominantly inhabited by the non-tribals, which were already included within the boundary limit of the present day BTC 16 years ago, would definitely be excluded again as per the detrimental and irreversible clause No. 5.1 (8) which was inserted by the government in the Memorandum of Settlement of the new Bodo Accord. He said that this new Bodo accord was a suicidal instrument borne out of a political conspiracy of the government to sabotage the legitimate claim of the Bodo people for the realization of their promised Bodoland.

Bwiswmuthiary said that the 3rd Bodo accord signed on the January 27 by compromising on the demand for separate state of Bodoland at the behest of a few unscrupulous and irresponsible Bodo leaders, barring the NDFB (R), NDFB (Dhiren) and NDFB (S) factions, was not sanguine at all. He said that instead of being a blessing in disguise for the Bodos, the new Bodo accord signed on the dictated terms had become a curse like boomerang for the Bodos. He alleged that some Bodo leaders were hell bent to work as planted agent saboteurs and they persuaded the leaders of the NDFB (R), NDFB (Dhiren) and NDFB (S) to put their signatures on the papers of the new Bodo accord.

The former MP said that the new peace accord did not have any right to claim the Bodo people’s popular acceptance as neither the Bodo signatories nor the government had taken the Bodo civil society into confidence and none of the Bodo intellectual and senior Bodo leaders, including the protagonists of the Bodoland mass movement, were consulted. He added that the whole Bodo civil society strongly felt the need to re-open political dialogue on the Bodoland issue without any further delay.

Also Watch: Poi Mai-ko-chum-fai festival celebrated by Tai Phake community in Naharkatia