How the Bodo Accord was accomplished, establishing a wider template for peace in the Northeast

 Wasbir Hussain 

On January 27,

New Delhi succeeded in bringing the curtains down on more than three decades of militancy in one of South Asia’s hottest insurgency theatres. The government signed the new Bodo Accord with all the rebel factions: the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU), and a civil society body, United Bodo People’s Organisation (UBPO). This agreement can be called the Bodoland Territorial Region or BTR Accord as the existing Bodoland Territorial Areas District or BTAD has been renamed as BTR. The BTR Accord is unique in that it is the first peace agreement in the Northeast where all the existing insurgent groups in a particular area have put their signatures, with a joint commitment to end violence and strive for progress and development. A masterstroke by government negotiators is their flexible approach in letting the area’s frontline student organisation, the ABSU, be a signatory to the deal. After the 1986 Mizo Accord, at least five major peace agreements have been clinched with insurgent groups. But for the first time a student organisation which had acted as a catalyst and unifier has become a signatory to an accord along with a civil society conglomeration. This could well be a new peace template for the region. After two earlier Bodo agreements – the 1993 Bodoland Autonomous Council Accord and the 2003 deal with the rebel Bodo Liberation Tigers – this time the government was keen on a comprehensive settlement of the Bodo issue where the key demand for a separate Bodoland state was given up once and for all in lieu of adequate provisions for the uplift of Bodo people. The new Accord says on the issue: “Negotiations were held with Bodo organisations for a comprehensive and final solution to their demands while keeping intact the territorial integrity of the State of Assam.” One of the signatories, NDFB chief Gobinda Basumatary, told this writer that since most of the powers and aspirations of people seeking a separate state have been provided for in the new Accord, there is no need any more to demand a separate state. Apart from more legislative, executive, administrative and financial powers, BTR will now see exchange of villages. A commission headed by a retired judge will work out a mechanism for inclusion of villages with a majority tribal population, contiguous to the present Bodo Council area, into BTR. Similarly, villages with a majority non-tribal population currently under the Bodo Council, but contiguous to nonSixth Schedule areas (meaning areas outside the Council jurisdiction), will be excluded from the Council. This is expected to address the issues of both tribals currently outside the Bodo Council as well as nontribals currently living within the Council. Again, from 40 seats, the BTR Council will now have 60 seats. Up to 16 of these 60 seats could be open seats, meaning seats where non-tribals can also contest elections. Besides, there will be six nominated members in the BTR Council, including two women members and two from unrepresented communities. Therefore, for anyone to think that non-tribals have no reservations in the new BTR Accord is unfounded
Other significant provisions of the new accord is the decision to set up a Bodo-Kachari Welfare Council for ‘focussed development’ of Bodo villages located outside the Bodo Council area, and declaring Bodo language in Devnagri script as an associate official language of Assam. Besides, measures for protection of the Bodo language and culture and setting up several institutions of higher and technical education have also been provided in the Accord. The deal has also made it mandatory for the Assam government to earmark an amount of Rs 250 crore per annum for a period of three years for development of areas under the BTR Council. The Centre will contribute an equal amount of Rs 250 crore per annum for the same period. On the whole, the new Bodo Accord has many firsts and it can well be taken as a peace template as and when the government pushes its peace efforts in states like Manipur, for instance, where, too, there is a strong civil society presence which could well assist efforts at ending militancy.

The writer is Executive Director of the Centre for Development and Peace Studies in Guwahati

Source: Times of India, 6/02/2020