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Bodos upset with PM, may disrupt traffic again

Nitin Gogoi

Assam and the other north-eastern states may have to again face a spate of disruptions in road and rail traffic from January-end if the powerful All Bodo Students Union resorts to its old style of agitation in demanding a separate state for the Bodo community.

ABSU president Urkhao Gwra Brahma told rediff.com last weekend: "Since our deadline of December 31, 1999 given to the Centre to initiate a dialogue on our demands has expired, we have been left with no alternative but to launch a fresh agitation."

The Bodos, a three-million-strong community predominantly living in the western Assam districts of Kokrajhar and Dhubri, have been fighting for a separate homeland for over three decades. The ABSU has been in the forefront of the agitation that has witnessed many ups and downs through the decades.

The two districts -- Kokrajhar and Dhubri, bordering West Bengal -- serve as the sole entry point to the north-east. Aware of this, the Bodos have often resorted to blocking the road and rail traffic entering and going out of the region to draw attention to their demands. Although Brahma refused to give an exact date and the mode of agitation, he said: "We are now prepared for a prolonged and vigorous agitation since the Centre has not taken steps to initiate any dialogue with us."

Although the demand for a separate homeland for the Bodos was first made in 1967, it was only in the mid-1980s that the Bodo agitation shot into prominence when the ABSU launched a movement with a popular slogan: "Divide Assam 50:50." The six-year-long agitation -- often bloody and violent -- culminated in a much-hyped Bodo Accord, initiated by the then high-flying minister of state for internal security Rajesh Pilot. The accord fell much short of the expectations since it envisaged only an autonomous council but the Bodo leadership, tired and facing huge erosion in its support because of an inflexible attitude, agreed to the terms of the accord. Predictably enough, the accord could not be implemented and it has been back to square one since then.

In 1998, the Bharatiya Janata Party government, desperately searching for allies -- even those with a single vote -- promised to look into the Bodo demand, in return for the support of its lone MP. Throughout 1998 and early 1999, the BJP government kept up the pretence of taking some measures on the Bodo issue. In the post-election scenario, the BJP government, no longer in need of the crucial vote of the ABSU-backed MP, simply ignored the demand. In fact, the Bodos have taken umbrage to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement last month that no new states will be created after the demand for Uttarkhand, Vananchal and Chattishgarh is fulfilled.

"We have given nearly two years to the BJP leadership to take some steps vis-à-vis our long-standing demand. But even they have proved to be as callous as the Congress in this respect. We are now preparing for a long and vigorous agitation," the ABSU president said.

Given the geographical advantage that they hold and the massive mobilisation capacity that they have, the Bodos' determination can only spell further trouble to the Assam government.

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