GUWAHATI, July 8 ? The United Minority Front (UMF) has raised its strong opposition to the approval given by the State Government for creation of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) without considering the social and political reality in the present Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) area. The UMF in an emergent executive meeting held yesterday under the presidentship of Hafiz Rashid Choudhury ?with due respect to the sentiments of Bodo people? resolved that the issue of autonomy to Bodo people should be settled on the basis of Bhupinder Singh Committee report.
The UMF president Hafiz Rashid Choudhury and working president DC Biswas warned that any deviation from the recommendation of Bhupinder Singh Committee report in solving the Bodo issue would send a wrong message to the non-Bodo people in Bodo areas whose opinions were being consistently ignored or suppressed. The UMF vowed that both religious and linguistic minorities would never accept any ?unilateral and undemocratic? solution to the Bodo problem in the form of a BTC and would resist any move to form the territorial council.
The UMF further stated that in its bid to foil creation of the BTC, which is decided unilaterally by the State Government, it is not averse to join hands with other struggling democratic groups opposed to creation of the tribal council under the amended Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. With the UMF raising the banner of protest against the BTC, the Sanmilita Janagosthiya Sangram Samity (SJSS)?s movement is bound get a health shot in its arm. The development has definitely made the issue more hot for the Congress government to handle.