Outlaw comes home

Times though have changed for Ranjan Daimary alias D R Nablu,the 53-year-old founder of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland NDFB. After spending nearly a quarter of a century as an underground leader,Daimary was arrested by Bangladeshi troops in May 2010 and handed over to India. He faced charges in 13 cases,including four TADA cases,and has been in judicial custody ever since. Last week,he was released on a six-month conditional bail.

Daimary is now staying in a designated camp that the government permitted his group to set up at Odala-Borigaon in Udalguri district,about 150 km from Guwahati. Formed in 1986,the NDFB was known as the Bodo Security Force till 1994.

This compound,in fact,housed my ancestral house for several generations. Now,this has been converted into a camp, Daimary says. His supporters have constructed a new three-room house for him on the campus,which has barracks for about 40 NDFB cadres. The son of a pastor,he grew around these parts as the tenth among 11 siblings.

Daimary admits the bail is a result of the 12 rounds of talks he held with former Intelligence Bureau chief P C Halder,who was appointed interlocutor three years ago,and that he is willing to engage in peace negotiations. Still,at the camp,he remains the revered leader among the cadres.

Located by the side of a stream that trickles down from Bhutan,which is just about 4 km away as the crow flies,Odala is a backward village. My supporters repaired a 3-km road to help visitors reach my camp, he says.

Of those,there have been many. Delegations of Bodo people have been coming from all over the state. We have been waiting to meet him, says Tejimola Daimary,a housewife who changed two buses to get to the camp from Rowta,about 30 km away.

He is a visionary, says Tajendra Mushahary,who came from Gossaigaon in Kokrajhar district,about 400 km away in western Assam.

Daimary says he is an early riser and starts receiving his visitors by 9 am. People come from all over throughout the day. I cant fix a timetable to meet them, he says. But for a 30-minute break for lunch,these visits continue till the evening. After some physical exercise,which he got used to while on the runfrom NSCN camps in Myanmar,to jungles along the Assam-Arunachal and Assam-Bhutan border,to Bhutan,and finally BangladeshDaimary says he ends his day with his books.

He stopped keeping a diary,he adds,as several of these were confiscated by the authorities.

This,however,is a new chapter in his life. I dreamt of a better Bodo society. Later,I saw how other indigenous communities also suffered. Now I am preparing to negotiate with the government, he says. He hopes to have meaningful discussions,continuing from where Halder and he left,leading to a lasting solution that serves the overall interests of the Bodo people. Daimary also hopes Delhi will talk to both the NDFB factions together.

So has he given up the demand for a sovereign Bodo state? Daimary is vague. Things have changed, he says. I want to be part of a lasting peaceful solution that will ensure the development and prosperity of my community.

Among the 13 charges against him,the most serious concerns the Guwahati serial blasts. Others include the attack on a police station,several cases of abduction,the attack on a village,the killing of 13 people,the ambush of an Army convoy,and the charge of waging war against the State.

Daimary does not want to talk about the charges. These matters are subjudice. Let the law take its own course, he says. However,he asserts,he has no regrets. In war,a lot of people get killed.