Sixth schedule administration not guaranteed under BJP and Congress: BJSM

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOKRAJHAR: Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha (BJSM) on Wednesday reiterated that Sixth Schedule administration like BTC was not guaranteed under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government or Congress-led UPA regime as both the national parties had bypassed the local issues of the tribal communities. The Manch expressed fear that both the national parties were trying to bring small and regional parties under their grip and diverting local issues.

In a statement, the president of the BJSM, Janaklal Basuamtary said that politics of alliance was the order of the day. He said on Wednesday that no single political party could win absolute majority in the Assam State assembly and the BJP-led NDA and Congress-led UPA alliances had emerged prominent, besides Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and Raijor Dal.

Basumatary said that in BTC, the two main regional parties had joined opposite camps. "The Bodoland People's Front (BPF) has joined hands with the Congress and the United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) with the BJP. Both are supposed to protect and preserve the sixth schedule administration in order to safeguard the constitutional rights of tribal people," he said.

He lamented that the UPPL was now completely under the grip of the BJP and the BTC administration was being run under the BJP's direction. As a political party, UPPL has lost its independent existence, he said, adding that the BTC sixth schedule administration was not safe in their hands and the BJP was trying to convert it to general administration.

"On the other hand, the safety of BTC sixth schedule administration is not guaranteed in the hands of the Congress-led UPA coalition also because the party is a protector of illegal encroachers in tribal belts and blocks. But at least they have not been able to keep BPF under their tight grip, unlike UPPL is now completely under the grip of the BJP," said the BJSM leader.

He added that despite many shortcomings, if the BPF could continue its independent policy of protection and preservation of tribal constitutional rights, it might be an alternative choice for the weaker section of tribal people. He opined that people would have to choose between the bad and the worse. In this case, the BPF was less bad than the UPPL, particularly with reference to the protection and preservation of the constitutional tribal rights in the BTC sixth schedule administration.

He said that both the BJP and the Congress were not interested in the protection and progress of the tribal people. So the local party which was less under the grip of these national parties should be the choice of the tribal people of BTC. Just as the regional parties were talking about protection of Assamese nationality, so also the local regional parties of Bodoland should come forward to protect the Bodo nationality in Bodoland.

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