India
The Political Chaos of Bodoland

Image from BodoEthnicConflict.in
The Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English newspaper tried to give the communal colour to the 23 killings of Muslims last week by National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit), a militant faction of NDFB under IK Songbijit. But little did it mention about the cause of conflict which is more of Bodo/Non-Bodo centric than religious clashes.
These Bodoland related killings and agitation dates back to Nellie Massacre on February 18, 1983 when 1800 women, men and children belonging to immigrant Bengali speaking Muslim families were killed in just one day during the course of anti-foreigners agitation spearheaded by All Assam Student Union and since then there is a string of killings with Bodo-Muslim clashes of 1993 and 1994 which ended up displacing 2074 families in Kokrajhar and 1,740 families in undivided Bongaigaon, claiming 113 lives. Bodo-Adivasi clashes in May 1996 & 1998 claimed 198 lives displacing 2, 02,684 people triggering the worst ever humanitarian crisis, with some people living as long as 17 years in relief camps.
Karbi-Kuki and Karbi-Dimasa were the other two ethnic clashes in 2005 and 2006 displacing yet another 59000 families in the Karbi-Anglong district. The target has been every community Musilms, Karbi or Adivasis in this land conflict, a movement that was initiated by Upendranath Brahma of All Bodo’s Student Union (ABSU) with its political wing Bodo People’s Action Committee (BPAC) shouting the slogan “Divide Assam 50-50” in 1987 and was assumed to be resolved with the Bodo Accord of 1983
This demand for Bodoland was not raised for the first time in 1987. The movement has its origins in economic and sociocultural aspirations of Bodo people who first raised a demand for Bodo homeland under British rule but it was not until 1930s that they began to organise themselves. After Nagaland became a state and anticipating further change in the landscape of Assam during the states reorganisation committee under the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1969, Bodo leadership formed a political party called Plain Tribal Council of Assam (PTCA).
The BAC became a failed experiment as the territory of Bodo/Non Bodos was not properly demarcated and there was no political or financial authority provided to this council nullifying the very purpose of economic and sociocultural recognition for Bodos in the Assam land. This lead to resentment among the Bodo groups and this is the point from where Bodo politics started becoming confusing. The ABSU, under its then President Swambla Basumatary rejected the accord reviving its demand for separate state.
During this course of political bargaining PTCA split in 1984 under its militant leader Binai Khunger Basumatary forming a new party United Tribal Nationalists Liberation Front, Assam (UNTLF) and working in tandem with ABSU and both the organizations blaming PTCA for sacrificing interests of tribals.
In the background, a militant outfit known as Boro Security Force (BdSF) (at the time of its inception on October 3, 1896) was planning to take the main stage of Bodo liberation movement and with the weakly coagulated accord of BAC; it saw its chance to coming to forefront and killed Swambla Basumatary. BdSF was known as NDFB after another split group of Bodoland Liberation Tigers (BLT) in 1996.
With the killing of Basumatry, fierce fratricidal clashes followed among the Bodo groups while waging a parallel campaign of statehood with ABSU-led revived movement and BLT killing loyalists of each other.
In the event, the NDFB, which has close but undefined links to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and other separatist armed outfits, remained committed to the goal of a ‘sovereign Bodoland’; the BLT, after nearly four years of its own ‘armed struggle’ and a lot of killings, entered into a ceasefire agreement with the AGP government in March 2000, preparatory to peace talks.
Now it was NDFB which had taken the center stage instead of ABSU and PTCA, who were sidelined by second Peace Accord with AGP and then again the series of killings began, the worst being Bodo-Adivasi clashes on 1996 & 1998.
Initially some ABSU leaders started joining BLT when it became a full fledged party but the elections of tribal council brought further discord forming another new party Bodoland People’s Progressive Front (BPPF), which was constituted by ousted ABSU and BLT leaders. The party further split into the BPPF (Hagrama), led by Hagrama Mahilary, the erstwhile BLT chief and chief executive member of the ad hoc BTC, and BPPF (Rabiram), led by Rabiram Narzary, former ABSU president. BPPF (Hagrama) after getting a wide mandate from tribal people in the council election rechristened itself as Bodoland People’s Front (BPF).
Where BPF and BPPF had taken to politics of the state ruling Assembly elections in coalition with Tarun Gogoi’s Ason Gana Parishard (AGP), NDFB kept going with its militant attacks in the state projecting itself as Pro-Bodoland outfit. However in 2008, during the general assembly of the NDFB, its founder chairman Ranjan Daimary was replaced with B.Sungthara. But Daimary claimed the president position of NDFB which resulted in the alleged involvement of Daimary on October 30 serial blasts in which as many as 18 bombs went off in the markets of Guwahati city killing 77 and injuring 470 people. This had split NDFB in further two factions, one led by Daimary known as NDFB (Ceasefire or Progressive) who signed a ceasefire accord with the Gogoi’s government in Assam. But still the faction led by Sungathara which is now NDFB (S) continued its aggression.
Political and militant outfits are splitting into further factions. When government signs an accord with a militant organization, the unsatisfied group in the outfit forms another new outfit again creating the atmosphere of terror strikes and sporadic killings.
The issues of land in India may it be of Telangana, which has recently been declared 29th state of India or of Khalistan movement which want a Sikh dominated region in Punjab or the ones having their demands to divide the state of Uttar Pradesh in parts, are the ones which have taken thousands of lives and have displaced millions of people in this 60 years of independence and all these outfits claiming to be the saviours of the rights of their individual’s community brings destructions to the life of common people, who are already suppressed with their economic and social burdens and in such case these right’s demanding outfit are no better than the one against whom they are fighting for their rights.
These issues need a proper care from the government where it should set state organizations committee and genuinely look to resolve the issues unlike Maoism where even after forming CPI(Maoist), the campaigns like Salwa Judum have occurred, resulting in ever tensing situations and these outfits should also, act as spokesperson of the people whom they are representing, instead of trying to grab the power from the Central or state authorities with terror.
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