Caught in
the Crossfire of Blame: The Bodos and the BTC Issue
Hira Charan Narjinari
The conflict between the Bodos and immigrant
Muslims during July-August 2012 has completed almost one year now. Those were
the days when common people from both communities had suffered greatly. Since the immigrant Muslims failed in their
desire to possess a plot of land illegally for an Idgah due to strong
resistance by the BTC administration, there was a simmering grudge among the
immigrant Muslims against the Bodos. That they wanted to teach the Bodos a great
lesson is clear from the disclosure by one of the accused persons in his
deposition. The final touch of hate-Bodo programme was activated on 20 July
2012 when four innocent Bodo youths were brutally assaulted that resulted in their
death on the spot. In this regard Gauri Singh, TSI of Kokrajhar Police Station
filed a complaint (ijhar) and a case FIR 212/2012 was registered under 341,
147, 149, 302 and 435 IPC on 20th July 2012.
Right from the formation of Bodoland Autonomous
Council in 1993, non-Bodos living within the boundaries of the Council have
been vehemently opposing conferment of any geo-political power on the Bodos.
Subsequently, the Bodoland Accord of 2003 gave the Bodos more power as
Territorial Council created under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of
India. The non-Bodos within the BTC area were unhappy with the creation of
Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and were envious of the geo-political
hegemony of the Bodos which naturally drove them to be intolerant towards the
Bodos Therefore, they have been constantly waiting for an opportunity to
destabilise the BTC administration. Hindrance to build Idgah gave the Muslims
an opportunity to rise against the Bodos and hatched a plot to take revenge
against the Bodos and the 20th July 2012 incident was the
culmination of Muslim intolerance towards the Bodos.
From day one of the conflicts, Muslims started alleging
against the Bodos for ethnic cleansing. Not only the Muslims but also the
Hindus became vocal against the Bodos. The
tenor of some of the pundits belonging to non-Bodo communities in evaluating,
analyzing, and criticizing the Bodo Accord of 2003 clearly point to a direction
that empowering of the “uncouth, low-profile” Bodo people with political
hegemony was a blunder on the part of the NDA Government. They perhaps never
dreamt of that the Kirat-Mongloid Bodos will one day exercise their political
power on the Indo-Aryan people living in the predominantly Mongoloid country of
Assam. They were not even happy to see that Assam should be dissected and
states like Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh should have been
created. They considered Assam as their paternal Jagir over which they think
they had absolute authority and Mongoloid people do not deserve capabilities to
rule or exercise supreme power over them. But the irony is that the modern
descendants of those Jagirdars fail to remember that all the Jagirlands enjoyed
by their forefathers were free gifts from the Bodo kings only. Bodo king
Bhaskarvarman granted large amount of land to as many as 119 Brahmanas of
different gotras during his reign in the first half of the 7th
century A.D.[1]
Ancient political history of Assam is stuffed with scores of such testimonies
on this verity.
The most vocal person to demand scrapping of
Bodoland Territorial Council was a Bengali-speaking Dhubri M.P. Maulana
Badruddin Ajmal who is also the Chief of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).
He directly accused the Bodo MLAs
and Chief of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Hagrama Mahilary, for inciting
the Bodos against the Muslim inhabitants in BTC area. He demanded arrest of the
Chief of BTC and scrapping of the Memorandum of Settlement of the Bodo Accord
as he thinks that the
MOS was meant only for the interest of the Bodos and not for others. He also
urged Sri Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, to dissolve the Bodoland
Territorial Council and place it under Governor’s rule.
Yet
another MP from Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi during the Lok Sabha Debate on 8th
August 2012 emphatically warned the Central government and members of
Parliament that if Muslims (Bangladeshi illegal migrants) are not
rehabilitated, India will face third wave of radicalization amongst Muslim
youths. Let Mr. Owaisi speak here: “Lastly, I warn the Central Government; I
warn the hon. Members over here….if proper rehabilitation does not take place,
you be ready for a third wave of radicalization of Muslim youth…” The tenor of
warning here clearly absolutely and conclusively indicates to his utter
disregard towards the very strong pillar of democracy and it concerns a grave
threat to the security of the whole of India. He also demanded dissolution of
BTC as it failed according to him to protect people living there and scrapping
of Bodoland Agreement and failure to do so separation of those areas where 50%
is non-Bodos. By demanding separation of those areas where 50% is non-Bodos
(Muslim dominated?) Shri Owaisi has sent message to the Indian Parliament that
Muslims in Assam should be given a geo-political power (a Muslim State?).
Interestingly,
neither BJP nor Congress nor other regional political parties had uttered a
single word of reprimand for Mr. Owaisi’s communal overtone. They all yielded to the Hindu virtue of
tolerance. R.K. Ohri, IPS (Retd.) has rightly estimated the moral fibre of the
post-independence political leadership for their too reliance on the Hindu virtue
of tolerance. He says, “The post-independence political leadership of India has
for the most part remained a prisoner of the creed of meek submission to
senseless aggression and violence by wearing the great Hindu virtue of
tolerance on its sleeves. No one can dispute that tolerance is a great quality,
a good civilizational value system but only up to a point and within
responsible limits. Beyond that limit, any tolerance of tyranny and aggression
becomes a liability, a curse.”[2]
Asghar
Ali Engineer, another columnist, has analyzed that the cause of clashes lies in
“creating of BODOLAND TERRITORIAL COUNCIL in an area where Bodos are only 29
per cent and rest are non-Bodos including Bengali speaking Muslims settled
there since the British period and the British had brought them for cultivation
of jute more than 100 years ago.” He asks, “How can one create Bodo Territorial
Council and give them powers for development and other matters when they are
just 29 per cent. All non-Bodo people feel aggrieved and want the Council to be
repealed. They feel they are not getting due share in development. The Bodos,
on the other hand, want to increase their number in that area so that they
become the majority and creation of Bodo Territorial Council could be
justified.”[3]
In a
Press Conference on 4th August 2012 All Bodoland Minority Students’
Union Vice-President Sahabuddin Ali Ahmed said, “The BTAD administration is
behind the recent flare-up of violence in the BTAD.” He further said, “Clearly
the people who are in a hurry to form a separate Bodoland State are behind
these clashes.”[4]
Some
members of Indian religionists also did not lag behind in joining chorus with
the so-called religious minority. Everywhere they made fuss over the creation
of BTC for the Bodos. What makes them envy of the Bodos while they have been
conferred the geo-political power under the Constitution of India? Will
scrapping of BTC bring peace in Lower Assam? Will the Bodos without any resistance
make over their rights to be trampled over? I am afraid, the more the Bodos
will be harassed the more there will be tensions in the area.
Spiteful
utterances on the Bodos by Dr. Devabrata Sharma, a lecturer of Jorhat College
make one believe that his philosophy of love for dalit and opposition to caste
oppression on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is nothing but a political
gimmick only. He is the chief advisor of a leftist organization called United
Revolutionary Movement Council of Assam (URMCA). He terms the creation
of BTAD as undemocratic and discriminatory. An intellectual person like Dr
Sharma should have been more cautious to bridle his tongue when he said:
“Nothing could be more undemocratic and discriminatory than the creation of the
BTAD-BTC. Democracy is all about majority rule. BTAD-BTC is just the reverse of
that principle. How can 20 per cent rule over 80 per cent? Because the Bodos do
not enjoy numerical majority, they are resorting to ethnic cleansing, targeting
Muslims, Adivasis, Rajbanshis and even Assamese caste Hindus. The Bodos have
become a law unto themselves. We stand for the dissolution of BTAD and BTC to
stop the rape of democracy. Bodos comprise a little over six per cent of the
state’s population but are demanding 50 per cent of Assam for the Bodoland of
their dreams. Muslims comprise over 30 per cent of Assam’s population. Yet they
have so far displayed exemplary patience despite grave provocations. What will
happen if Muslims and other victimized communities unite and retaliate?”[5]
Isn’t this statement provocative and full of venom
against the oldest inhabitants of Assam? Dr. Sharma is probably well aware of
the fact that his forefathers were migrants from the west. The statement that
the Bodos have become a law unto themselves makes no sense if we consider the
way the immigrant Bengali Muslims encroached government lands. Why is he silent
on illegal encroachment by the Muslims? It seems that he does not consider
illegal encroachment as illegal but to him the immigrant Muslims have every
right to encroach government lands, forest lands, or any vacant space falling
under tribal belts and blocks; and the Assam Land Revenue Act or any law of the
land does not apply to them. His comment will encourage the Muslims to be
bolder to defy not only the administration of BTC but also the government of
Assam.
An experienced CPI (M) M.P. Basudev Acharia appears
to conceive that there is not a single illegal Bengali Muslims in the State of
Assam. According to him all the sufferers owing to the
clash are all Indian and not illegal Bangladeshi migrants. To this effect he has
given good character certificates in favour of the Muslims in the Lok Sabha
Debate on 8th August 2012 which has been recorded thus: “I visited the areas inhabited by the Muslim minorities in Kokrajhar
District and its neighbouring areas like Bongaigaon, Chirang, Dhubri and
Bilasipara. Should we call them Bangladeshi immigrants? They are the people who
are staying there since 1940-41. In 1953 Brahmaputra got eroded. Villages after
villages had got eroded. The Muslim population migrated from that area to Kokrajhar.
Should we call them Bangladeshi immigrants and try to drive them away? They are
the citizens of our country. They
are there for years together.”[6] He puts the blame on the Bodos for
engineering the conflict between the Bodos and Bengali Muslims. He commented
saying, “the intention behind creating this problem is to increase the
percentage of Bodo population from 27 per cent to 50 per cent so that the
demand for separate state can be strengthened.”[7]
Behind such clean-chit there is a smell of garnering
of votes for political ends at the expense of the national security. T.V.
Rajeswar, former Governor of West Bengal and Sikkim commented that vote-bank
politics turned a blind eye to the Bangladeshi migrants both in Assam and West
Bengal “because of the support it was getting from the
minority-migrant population.”[8] He further commented that when the Congress
was in power in Assam and when the AGP replaced it the ministry’s survival
depended upon the support of a group of MLAs who were against any serious
action against the Bangladeshi migrants.
Praful
Bidwai, a former newspaper editor and now a researcher and Peace and
Human-Rights Activist based in Delhi, writes that the Bodos drove the Muslims
out forcibly in 1992, 1996 and 2010 but they failed in 2012. This is obviously
an inflammatory comment and a derogatory statement pointing his finger towards
the Bodos exclusively. He thinks that when the Bodos form only 20% and do not
enjoy social-economic hegemony, creation of BTAD as homelands for tribals in
western Assam was the Indian government’s misguided policy.[9]
Columnists
Ratnadip Choudhury and Avalok Langer said that “the seeds of the current
conflagration were sown in the 2003 BTC Accord.”[10] These columnists also
appear to have allergy to see the Bodos prosper in their own ways.
A former
Naxalite leader, Santosh Rana has called the BTC area as a “killing field” and
urged both the Central Government and State of Assam to “dissolve the BTC and
evolve a solution on the basis of equality of all identities.”[11] Naxal movement was an
armed uprising to snatch lands from the jotedars and redistribute land to the
landless farmers. It is well known that their history is replete with
bloodshed. He might have eschewed the path of violence now, but his rhetoric is
an anti-tribal and condemnable.
Dr. Nani
Gopal Mahanta an associate professor of political science at Gauhati University
has discovered that “the very creation of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC)
under the 6th Schedule” is the origin of the July-August 2012
violence. He further stated that “BTC was born out of merciless killing and
violence at the behest of the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT).”[12] In another article he,[13] having analyzed the
recent violence in BTC area, states that as it is absolutely necessary for
making the Bodos majority in their area so they are evicting people of other
communities from Bodo areas in order to make
a ‘homogenous Bodoland’.
Theses
by non-Bodo intellectuals as referred to above have been proved baseless. The
investigation by the CBI on the incident of 20th July 2012 which had
sparked violence in the BTC area has unearthed a different story totally
contrary to their views. The CBI has found “larger conspiracy” behind the
killing of four Bodo youths.
The Assam Government had ordered CBI enquiry into
the incident that took place on 20th July 2012 in which four Bodo
youths were brutally hackled to death. By a notification No.PLA 432/2012/Pt./20
dated 9th August 2012, the Government of Assam extended the powers
and jurisdiction of members of Special Police Establishment (CBI) to whole of
Assam. The Government of India, Ministry of Personnel by a notification No.228/45/2012/AVD-II
dated 10th August 2012 transferred the investigation of FIR
No.212/2012 dated 20th July 2012 of Kokrajhar PS under section 341,
147, 148, 149, 302 and 435 IPC to CBI for investigation. Accordingly the CBI
re-registered the Case RC 10(S)2012/CBI/SC-1/New Delhi on 10th
August 2012 and began investigating into the incident of 20th July
2012.
Investigation by CBI discloses that on 20 July 2012
at about 8 pm Adam Ali Sheik who has been named as accused No. 2 in the Charge
Sheet, and other villagers of Joypur were present in the Joypur Bazaar and they heard the sound of firing. He
along with other unknown persons started raising the slogan of Allah Ho Akbar continuously for about
five to seven minutes and the same was followed by the other villagers and
persons present in the bazaar. Thereafter people from the Joypur, Namapara and
Dangipara gathered in the Joypur bazaar. About 300 people gathered as it was
first day of Roza and most of the people were already present in the nearby two
mosques for prayers.
CBI investigation discloses that at about 8.50 pm
four Bodo youths namely Pradip Boro, Zwngsar Boro, Jatin Goyary and Nipon
Goyary reached Joypur bazaar from Bhatipara side. Adam Ali Sheik pointed his
finger towards them saying that they were the same persons who had fired in the
area earlier at about 8 pm. The crowd intercepted all the four Bodo youths and
started thrashing them in presence of Assam Police officials. How come Adam Ali
Sheikh was so certain that those four Bodo youths were the same persons who had
fired in the air? It is obvious that the ABMSU had already taken decision that they
would attack any Bodo passing Joypur area. The story of firing also appears to
be a design to put their decision into action. It is not believable that those
four Bodo youths would pass through Joypur if they had earlier at 8 pm fired in
the area. As a rule they were supposed to take different route to reach
Kokrajhar town instead they returned via Joupur. This leads us to presume that
those four Bodo youths were not involved in firing in the air in that area and
they had fallen victims of circumstances.
CBI has distinctly recorded that “they heard the sound of firing” only.
Can this be taken to mean that Adam Ali Sheikh personally saw those four Bodo
youths firing in the air? Hearing does not connote seeing, they mean
differently. From this it is clear that the fanatic Muslims had already decided
to start a communal riot in the BTC area. And the CBI had rightly sensed a
“larger conspiracy” behind the killings of four Bodo youths.
CBI
investigation reveals that after the incident when the dead bodies were lying
on the ground, Kurban Ali, accused number 1 in the Charge-Sheet had removed the
cellphone of the deceased Nipon Goyary. He had admitted the same in his
disclosure statement and stated that he had used the hand-set from 29th
to 31st July 2012 with his own SIM card of his personal connection
No. 9954986373. The CDR analysis has confirmed that SIM card of the said mobile
number was used in the hand-set of deceased Nipon Goyary. It is also revealed
that Hashim Ali Rahman accused number 3 in the Charge-Sheet had used the stolen
mobile phone number 9859941471 of the deceased Pradip Boro from 21st
to 29th July 2012 to contact his close family members.
The
accused persons namely Adam Ali Sheikh, Accused No. 2, Hashim Ali Rahman,
Accused No. 3, Imran Hussain, Accused No. 4, Hashem Ali Sheikh, Accused No. 5,
Ali Azam Sheikh, Accused No. 6 and Moinul Sheikh, Accused No. 8 had been
properly and correctly identified by the witnesses during the investigation
Test Identification Parade (TIP) conducted by the Court of Special Magistrate
CBI Guwahati at Central Jail Guwahati on 29th September 2012.
“During
the investigation sufficient evidence, oral as well as documentary evidence has
come on record against accused persons namely Md. Kurban Ali Sheikh(A1), Adom
Ali Sheikh (A2), Hashim Ali Rahman (A3), Imran Hussain (A4), Hashem Ali Sheikh
(A5), Ali Azam Sheikh (A6) and Moinul Sheikh (A8) to prove that they alongwith
other members of the unlawful assembly committed the offences punishable under
section 147, 148, 149, 302, 341, 379, 435 & 201 IPC. Besides the accused
Kurban Ali Sheikh (A1) and Hashim Ali Rahman (A3) are also liable to be
prosecuted for the substantive offences u/s 379 and 201 IPC.”
Paradoxically,
the All Bodoland Minority Students’ Union (ABMSU) is however not happy with the
probe conducted by the CBI. ABMSU President Sahabuddin Ali Ahmed said, “We have
serious doubts in the credibility of CBI as it has been proved that they work
in the favour of the ruling government in the recent past.” He demanded a high
level probe into the 2012 riots in BTC area. Supposing high level probe is
ordered by the government and the high level probe committee also goes against
the ABMSU activists will they still insist upon further probe?
It may be pertinent here to refer to the
sentiments of the Assamese members of the Constituent Assembly about the tribal
people of the then Assam. They openly expressed in the Constituent Assembly
that the tribal people should not be given much autonomy through the Sixth Schedule.
During the debate on 6 September 1949, Kuladhar Chaliha, member of Constituent
Assembly, had strongly opposed to giving too much autonomy to the Hills Tribes.
He went so far as to state that allowing tribal people to rule or run
administration will be an injustice to non-tribals (Assamese). The same view
was expressed by Rohini Kumar Chaudhuri. These civilised persons from Assam
never wanted Tribal people to rule over them rather they wanted to dominate the
tribal people perpetually. The same sentiment still prevails among many caste
Assamese for whom rule by the Bodos is something unthinkable. They, however,
forget the fact that their forefathers were the subjects of Bodo kings for
centuries.
Interestingly,
people today question the very creation of BTC in the strongest terms and
allege as to how a minority community in the BTC area should enjoy such
geo-political power depriving majority non-Bodos. However, they do not question
how they became minority; they do not question how tribal lands were alienated;
they do not question why despite protective measures envisaged in the Assam
Land Revenue Act 1886 amended from time to time was not implemented in letter
and spirit; they do not question why infiltration is still allowed to take
place; they do not question why land within tribal belts and blocks should be
settled with non-tribal people; they do not question why lands belonging to
government are forcibly occupied by non-tribal people, mostly immigrant Bengali
Muslims. Why these questions have not been put before the central and state
governments by those who strongly spoke against the Bodo Accord of 2003?
Have
they ever asked or studied how the Bodos have become minority in their own
land? Occupying the land of the Bodos by stratagem the outsiders or foreigners
drove them to the environs of the woods where they languished for generations.
Today, the original inhabitants i.e., the Bodos have been outnumbered by
outsiders be they Bengali Muslims (legal or illegal) or be they Indo-Aryan
speakers. In their own homeland the Bodos are today uprooted. Modern
civilization has opened up the eyes of the Bodos and their constant search for
their antecedents made them re-assertive in claiming back their certain tracts
for developing and safeguarding their own culture and language. This aspiration
is guaranteed by the Constitution of India. What is wrong then if the Bodos are
given a geo-political power within the framework of the Indian Constitution?
The Charge Sheet relating to the 20 July 2012
incident has now come to light and it has been established that behind the
violent riots that had spread in the BTC area and Dhubri after killing of four
Bodo youths, the ABMSU was solely responsible. Now where are those persons who were vocal in blaming the Bodos for starting
the violence? Why are they now silent on the involvement of ABMSU in starting
the violence? Let them now come forward demanding banning of ABMSU and write
scores of articles condemning the sinister designs of immigrant Muslims. Will
they do that?
Many
intellectuals have alleged that the Bodos are out to make BTC area exclusively
for themselves and that is why they are resorting to cleansing of other ethnic
groups. Can this happen in a democratic set-up? They very often cite the
carnage of 2008 at Udalguri without ascertaining as to how the incident had
started. Incidents that took place at Rowta-Bhalukmari-Hatkhola in Udalguri
district on 14.8. 2008 during the bandh called by the Muslim Students Union of
Assam (MUSA) and subsequent clashes between the Bodos and Muslims have been
termed by many as ethnic cleansing by the Bodos. That their allegation is
utterly groundless can be testified by what Justice P.C.Phukan former Judge,
Gauhati High Court submitted his findings on 15th February 2010
concerning the incidents. Let Justice Phukan speak here: “MUSA officer-bearers
and MUSA activists are squarely responsible for starting the violence by
forcing the shop-keepers to close their shops and beating up those who refused
to oblige and forcing the scooter/motor-cycle riders, cyclist etc to stay off
the road and beating up those who resisted such use of force. If such
shop-keepers, motor-cycle riders, Cyclists etc, while resisting use of force by
the MUSA activists, struck them back in exercise of their right to private
defence of persons and property, they cannot be said to be on the wrong side of
the law.”
Demanding
scrapping of constitutionally created BTC certainly culminates into
dishonouring the very sanctity of the Constitution of India and at the same
time an intolerance shown towards the original inhabitants or the sons of the
soil. Critics of the creation of BTC are perhaps not alive to the fact that the
Bodos had ruled Kamrup (ancient Assam) for more than twelve hundred years while
the Ahoms ruled only for six hundred years. They have not perhaps realized that
any adverse criticism against the Bodos may one day become a boomerang for
them. In this regard Dr. Prafulla Mahanta has rightly said that demanding
dissolution of BTC means a bad omen for the entire people of Assam.[14] Now if the Bodos are
universally blamed for acts they did not commit then should others expect them
to remain patriotic?
[1]
Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XIX, pp. 115-125.
[2]
R.K. Ohri, IPS (Retd.), Long March of Islam the Future Imperfect, 2004, p.327.
[3]
http://twocircles.nt/2012jul30/bodomuslim_clashes_reasons_and_analysis.html.
[4]
The Sentinel, 5 August 2012.
[5]
Cited in S.N.M. Abdi’s ‘The 50-50 Shot’,
http://www.outlookinida.com/article.aspx?282078.
[6]
Lok Sabha Debate on 8th August 2012.
[7]
Lok Sabha Debate on 8th August 2012
[8]
T.V. Rajeswar, Problem of Bangladeshi migrants Politico-economic study in
historical context, The Tribune, Online Edition, February 17, 2003 available at
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030217/edit.htm#3
[9]
Praful Bidwai, Ethnic Conflict in India,
http://www.thenews.com.pk/todays-news-9-128487-ethnic-conflict-in-india.
[10]
Tehelka, Vol. 9, Issue 33, 18 August 2012
[11]
Santosh Rana, ‘Bodoland: The Killing Field’, Frontier, Vol. 45, No. 13, October
7-13, 2012
[12]
Nani G. Mahanta, A Kashmir in the Making,
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nani-g.-mahanta-on-recent-ethnic-violience-in-assam-bodoland/1/221691.html
[13]
Dr. Nani Gopal Mahanta, ‘Ashanta Borobhumi:Niti Jetia Hingsar Karak Hoy’ Amar
Asom, 26&27 July 2012
[14]
Dr. Prafulla Mahanta, ‘Sangharsa-jarjar Borobhumi Aru Boro Tatha Janajatir
Surakshar Prasna’, in Bodoland, a monthly Bi-lingual Journal of Bodo Peoples’
Front, Vol. I, Issue – 6, December 2012, pp. 6-10
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