GUWAHATI, June 27 ? The Bodo movement is neither an ethnic movement nor is it against any community. But it is one of the genuine movements of the indigenous people of Assam to safeguard their own identity in the face of large-scale illegal migration of Bangladeshi nationals and also from influx of Nepalis and people having origins in other States, said the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) in its vision paper for Bodoland. The vision paper of the BLT dealt extensively on the problem caused by the illegal migration from Bangladesh and observed that the indigenous people of Assam are facing extinction due to the migration. The BLT is of the view that the main reason for illegal migration from Bangladesh is the hopeless economic situation in the neighbouring country and the migrants are determined to stay in Assam and other parts of India. The high density of population and a high birth rate made the people of Bangladesh seek settlement in India. The life in Bangladesh is very harsh and the average daily income of a manual worker is barely enough for two meals a day. The vision paper said that in another 20 years, the population of Bangladesh would double and the country would never be able to sustain the population. Thus the pace of migration is likely to increase in the years to come and there is every possibility that in the next 10 to 15 years, more than 50 million people from Bangladesh would enter Assam and other parts of India, thereby aggravating the present grim situation, the vision paper said.
The BLT vision paper further pointed out that because of the global environmental change, Bangladesh is likely to face the wrath of the fury of nature, which is also likely to displace lakhs of people and due to a virtually open border, those people would be tempted to migrate to Assam and other parts of India. According to the BLT, the worst impact of illegal migration is that migration is now being handled as an organised political movement by the Islamic fundamentalist forces in order to weaken the fragile federal structure of India. The North-east region of India would be the worsts ufferer because of the international borders surrounding it, the BLT observed.
The BLT vision paper pointed out that there is virtually no check in the international border and the migrants can easily enter Assam and mingle with the local people as Assam already has a large presence of illegal migrants. There is absolutely no organised resistance from the society to fight the menance of large-scale migration and the responsibility lies with only the State Government, which is functionless in this regard. Criticising the political parties, the BLT said that since independence, the political parties, for their narrow political gains, are using the illegal migrants as dependable vote bank and therefore there is no political will among the political leaders to fight against migration. Moreover, Assam still has substantial forest as well as other vacant land and the illegal migrants can settle in with a little collaboration from the State administration, the vision paper said.
The BLT, in its vision paper gave some suggestions for solving the problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh. The vision paper admitted that solving the problem would be a big task and no government action and simple legislations alone would never be able to solve the problem without strong support of the people. The problem has to be fought with great determination and political will. The BLT stressed the need for building up a genuine people?s movement with complete support from the government for solution of the problem. The vision paper said that the constitutional rights of the bonafide indigenous citizens would have to be protected through suitable amendment of the Constitution.
As far as possible, no khas or wasteland should be left vacant and small and big business houses should be given encouragement to bring such land under organised activities of business based on the agriculture sector, the vision paper said. The BLT also expressed serious concern over the migration of people from other States of the country and pointed out that migration of Santhals, Nepalis and other communities from the neighbouring States in the last five decades resulted in a change in the demographic pattern and added to the identity crisis of the Bodos. The vision paper pointed out that ethnic strife took place in Kokrajhar district mainly because of the illegal occupation of the forest land by the Santhals. It may be mentioned here that the BLT, which started an armed revolution demanding a separate State of Bodoland, has agreed to formation of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) under the provision of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India and the negotiations with the Government of India, which started in March, 2000, is in its final stage.