ASOM MOJURI SRAMEEK
UNION
H.O. C/o N. k. Das,
Khudiram Sarani, Sibbari Road
Regd
No. 2287
Ref : NIL
Date : ২৮-০৭-২০১২
To,
The Honourable Chief Minister
Government of Assam
Dispur, Guwahati
(Through Deputy Commissioner,
Cachar)
Sub – Memorandum
Respected Sir,
We, on behalf of various
organizations would like to draw your kind attention to the fact that the recent
orgy of violence that took away many innocent lives and torched innumerable
Muslim villages speaks volumes about the politics of ethnic cleansing
prevailing in the BTAD area. The mayhem let loose by the armed Bodo militant
groups supported by biased political administration of BTC and an insensitive
civil and police administration has compelled the lakhs of Muslim villagers to
flee and take refuge in the camps to live the inhuman life of their
predecessors who are still languishing in the makeshift camps as the victims of
earlier similar genocide. In front of an
all out aggressive armed terrorist attack, the brave front of mass-resistance
of the victims proved to be feeble and collapsing when the perpetrators of
violence with their hegemonic position started an well orchestrated campaign of
outside involvement with an intention to give an Islamic dimension of
Bangladeshi infiltration to justify the entire anti-Muslim operation. As the
mistrust between the communities looms large in a terror-stricken environment, a
section of poor Bodo masses also fled their villages and took refuge in the camps.
A section of the Bodo leadership having a least sympathy to their poor
community-brethren is deliberately amplifying it to emphasise the theory of
outside involvement.
We uphold the principle of equal
rights and equal dignity of all the communities and this principle necessitates
empowerment of all communities whose identity rights are at stake. But the way
a section of Bodo leadership is spearheading the Bodoland movement to establish
absolute hegemony and minority rule over all other communities who constitute
the majority population in the BTC area is not in any way serving the interest
of common Bodo masses. According to one estimate, Bodos constitute not more than 25 per cent of the total
population in the BTC area (and not more than 6 percent of total population of
Assam). This means that the BTC Accord gives the Bodos a special status under
the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution at the cost of 75 per cent of non-Bodo
population in the proposed BTC area.
This movement with an undemocratic
essence has naturally transformed itself into a chauvinist-terrorist onslaught through
complete lumpenisation of the polity and twisting mass-psyche of disrespect
towards the democratic rights of others. The armed Bodo organizations are bent
on instilling a fear psychosis in the minds of all non-Bodo population with
tacit support of their patron at the helm of affairs.
Contd. To Page 2
(2)
This type of pogrom against the
non-Bodos is not new and unfamiliar in this BTAD area. Actually the history of
the movement for Bodoland and divide Assam fifty-fifty launched in the name of
the assertion of Bodo identity rights is mired with killings of thousands and
large-scale eviction of lakhs of people especially Santals and Muslims. A
horrific attack in Muslim villages including the refugee camp in Barpeta
District in 1994 and similar attack on Santals in 1996 are still fresh in the
minds of the survivors and the victim families. In 2008, a rumour of a missing Bodo
youth gave the alibi to the Bodo Terrorists to let loose a reign of terror on
the Muslim populace in Darang and Udalguri districts killing 55, injuring more than 100 and
pushing more than 1.5 lakhs of muslim masses to refugee camp by completely
shattering 54 villages according to one estimate. The death and destruction
during the attack on Santals in 1996 had even surpassed this horrific scale.
All other communities including the Bengali Hindus are muted through terror
tactics and they have to live in a state of terror and submission.
This overt way of annihilation,
covert way of leading those in the camps to die slowly in an inhuman living
condition and forced displacement through eviction are machinated to establish
the Majority figure of the Bodos who are otherwise minority in the entire
landscape of Bodoland demanded. To put the figure straight, the Bodos in the
area constitute less than 20 per cent of the population, but have been deemed
fit to command an unassailable, absolute majority in the proposed Council. Over
65 per cent of the seats in the Council are reserved for Scheduled Tribes
(STs), whereas the total ST population, including the Bodos, is around 30 per
cent. It is Bodoland for the Bodos even
when the territory has only an absolute minority of Bodos. This is a gross
violation of equality and democratic rights. Given the savage violence with
which ethnic cleansing by the armed Bodos has been taking place in the area for
decades, handing over considerable powers to the perpetrators of that
protracted violence has meant the end of all guarantees of safety, livelihood
and democratic rights for the non-Bodo majority. The sixth schedule has even
deprived the non-Bodos from the powers that have been enjoyed by the people in
the rest of Assam through Assam Panchayat act promulgated on the basis of 73rd
constitutional act.
But
the three men expert commission set up by the centre to propose solution of
this vexed problem do not subscribe to the formation of BTC. This commission
consisted of the Chairman, Bhupinder Singh, a long-time handler of tribal
affairs for the Union Home Ministry; Kumar Suresh Singh an anthropologist and
administrator; and, a member secretary supplied from the Home Ministry’s ranks.
This commission was to look at both the Bodo and the Mising questions on the
north bank of the Brahmaputra. We would like to summarise very briefly its
recommendations so far as they pertain to the Bodo question.
The
commission had access to the linguistic tables of the 1991 census. From their
study of it, they concluded that the Bodos had majorities at the village and
village cluster levels only. This was a crucial finding. Keeping in mind the
aspirations of the Bodos, the commission proposed two things, one for the state
level and another for the regional level. At the regional level, it proposed a
three-tier structure of self-government, two of them territorial, at the
village and village cluster levels, and a coordinating body above the two. All
three bodies were to have demarcated but interpenetrating powers. At the state
level, the commission proposed a second chamber for the legislature, a sort of
house of ethnicities, with definite powers, including the veto over the lower
chamber in certain matters, to ensure self-rule and the cultural and social
autonomy of the various ethnicities. The question of the Sixth Schedule could
not possibly occur in such a proposal. That or any large-scale territorial
autonomy had become untenable on account of the demographic findings.
Contd. To Page 3
(3)
But
the objectives as stated in
the agreement are: to create an Autonomous self governing body to be
known as Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) within the State of Assam and to
provide constitutional protection under Sixth Schedule to the said Autonomous
Body; to fulfil economic, educational and
linguistic aspirations and the preservation of land-rights, socio-cultural and
ethnic identity of the Bodos; and speed up the infrastructure development in
BTC area. So the formation of BTC itself curtailed the rights of non-Bodos who
are majority in the area demarcated.
Under the circumstances stated
above, we put forward the following demands for your perusal and immediate
needful action.
(1)
All the arms of the Bodo militant organizations who are under ceasefire
must be seized immediately.
(2)
All the past evicted people who are languishing in the makeshift camps and
the evicted people of recent violence must be suitably rehabilitated and
compensated,
(3)
BTC must be dissolved and BTAD must be abrogated immediately.
(4)
The present BTAD area vis-à-vis entire state of Assam must be re-structured
on federal basis to ensure equal-rights and equal-dignity of all the
communities of Assam including the Bodos.
Yours faithfully
Copy to – (1) Hounourable Governor, GoA,
Dispur. (2) Honourable Prime Minister, GoI, New Delhi (3) Honourable Home
Minister, GoI, New Delhi. (2) The Chairperson, National Human Rights
Commission, GoI, New Delhi.
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