Bodo breakthrough

It has been a good season for peace prospects in the Northeast. We use the term ‘prospects’ advisedly because, ultimately, talks and accords amount only to intentions and must await their transformation into political practice to be really tested. But every process of change begins with good intentions and it is in that spirit that we welcome the tripartite agreement, signed on Monday, between the Bodo Liberation Tigers, the Centre and the government of Assam, creating an autonomous, self-governing Bodoland Territorial Council.

The Bodos, as a major tribe in the region, have long lived with the feeling that they have been cheated by history. Despite being among the earliest settlers in Assam — it is believed that they once ruled the region between Cooch Behar and the Naga Hills — they have generally been dealt the thick end of the stick, not just in terms of development initiatives but in terms of land lost to settlers from across the national border. The Assam Accord, when it came in 1985, benefitted the Assamese to the exclusion of the indigenous groups. It is this palpable deprivation that fuelled popular anger, which in turn kept alive several groups fighting for causes ranging from Bodo autonomy to Bodo independence. Apart from engineering massacres of those they regarded as ‘outsiders’ — the 1994 incident at Bansberia allegedly to liberate ‘Bodoland’ from Assam is a case in point — some of these outfits quickly descended to extortion, gun-running and drug-dealing.

Any initiative, then, to end such activity needs to be encouraged and, as we said, the Bodo accord is a step in the right direction. However, we must also remember that an earlier accord signed between the All Bodo Students’ Union, the Bodo Peoples’ Action Committee and the Assam government in 1993, came unstuck because it was not inclusive enough. The present one involves the Bodo Liberation Tigers, but not entities like the underground National Democratic Front of Bodoland, which are bound to stir up trouble. This is something that both the state and Central governments must anticipate if they want to protect the early prospects of peace in the state.