DHALIGAON (Bongaigaon), June 24 ? The failure of the ongoing peace talks between the Government and Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) would send a wrong signal to the people and give a big boost to the anti-national forces like the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), warned the publicity secretary of the BLT, Sri Mainao Daimary. Talking to The Assam Tribune here, the BLT publicity secretary said that they have already made their stand clear on the contentious issues like amendment of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and demarcation of the boundary of the proposed Bodoland Autonomous Council (BTC) and now it is up to the State and the Central governments to take the final decision on these issues. He said that the BLT would participate in the next round of tripatite talks only after receiving a concrete proposal from the Centre in black and white as there is no point on continuing talking on the same points over and over again. The ceasefire agreement between the Central government and the BLT would come to an end on July 21 and the BLT has demanded that a final solution to the problem must come within that date.
Referring to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi?s recent statement that the State Government had an open mind on the Bodo issue, Sri Daimary called upon Sri Gogoi to translate his words into action. He also demanded the intervention of the Central Government to finalise the boundary of the proposed BTC. Giving a detailed account of the process of talks, the BLT publicity secretary revealed that since March 2000, the BLT, participated in 14 rounds of formal tripartite talks and during the period, the ceasefire agreement was extended three times. He said that in the last round of tripartite talks on April 26, the Centre assured them to send the draft memorandum of understanding soon. Because of the failure of the Centre to do so, the BLT executive, on May 14, decided not to participate in any future talks till a concrete proposal from the Centre is received.
The BLT leaders also met the Union Home Minister, Sri L K Advani on June 12 and urged him to take initiative for the solution of the problem and he assured them to do so. He also assured that the Centre would take steps for inclusion of Bodo language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution as demanded by the BLT. On the demand for setting up of a Central University in the proposed BTC the Home Minister said that the Human Resource Development Ministry is not interested in setting up another central university in Assam and instead mooted the idea of a Centrally funded State Run University. ?We demanded that in that case the centrally funded university should be run by BTC authorities and the Home Minister assured that the Centre would consider the proposal,? Sri Daimary added.
Commenting on the issues holding up the solution of the Bodo problem, Sri Daimary said that they had demanded that 30 of the 40 seats of the proposal BTC should be kept reserved for the scheduled tribes. Though the State government had given a proposal for keeping only 20 seats reserved, the BLT would not compromise on their stand as in the Bodoland Autonomous Council also 30 of the 40 seats were reserved for the STs, he added. He said that the State Government, in its proposal to the Centre did not specify the amendments to the article regarding reservation of seats to State Assembly and Parliament. Clarifying the BLT?s stand on this issue, he said that 12 Assembly constituencies would fall fully in the proposed BTC and all those should be kept reserved for the STs, while, the only one Parliamentary constituency falling under the proposed BTC area is already reserved. The number of constituencies falling fully under the BTC might increase after delimitation and the BLT is ready to negotiate on the reservation of the same.
The other main hurdle is finalisation of the boundary of the proposed BTC and it was decided at the tripartite meeting that the issue would be dealt with by State Government in consultation with the BLT. But he lamented that the State Government failed to play its part in this regard to ensure early solution of the issue. He said that the total area demanded by the BLT would be around 9,000 square kilometre, while, the State Government is claiming that the boundary of the BAC, notified in 1999, should be the boundary of the proposed BTC, which is not acceptable to the Bodos. He revealed that the boundary of the BAC was first notified in 1993 and later in 1999, 353 villages were excluded. He revealed that on March 8, 2001, the then AGP led State Government recommended inclusion of 19 villages adjacent to Pachnoi river, Manas National Park, Orang sanctuary, National highway passing through BTC area, three villages in Srirampur area. Bijni town, and 107 villages excluded from the BTC in 1999. On our part we gave up 105 villages, excluded in 1999 and we were ready to negotiate on the remaining 141 villages? he added. He said that as the government is a continuous process, the Congress government should have accepted the proposal sent by the previous Government to the Centre.
Meanwhile, member of Parliament, U G Brahma, talking to this correspondent, said that the Central and the State Government failed to play their parts for the solution of the Bodo problem and ?we have doubts whether the officials participating in the talks received clear-cut guidelines from the Prime Minister or the Union Home Minister.? He said that the State Government?s decision to convene another all-party meet on the boundary of the BTC would be an unnecessary exercise as it was nothing but a part of ?time wasting tactics? of the Government. He revealed that the Bodo MLAs were not invited to the last all-party meet organised by the Government on the issue.
The president of the All Bodo Students? Union (ABSU) Sri Rabi Ram Narzary said that if the State and Central Government fail to solve the problem by August the ABSU would hold a Bodo national convention to decide the future course of action, ?the Bodo democratic organisations supported the ongoing peace talks but if the BLT is forced to go back to the jungles, we would have to decide our next course of agitation for the fulfilment of the demands,? he added.