National

The Homeland Bugle

Bodos, Gorkhas and Santhals unite under one umbrella to reinforce their demand for statehood

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The Homeland Bugle
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THE BJP's decision to grant statehood to Uttaranchal, Chhattisgarh and Vananchal was bound to open up a Pandora's box. Now, disgruntled Bodos, Gorkhas and Santhals have come together under one umbrella to reiterate their demand for a separate state. The National Students and Youth Forum for Small States (NSYFSS), taking up the cudgels on their behalf, has called a bandh on July 28 in Assam, West Bengal and Orissa.

Bandhs aren't new to the region, but they've hitherto been isolated affairs. What's worrying is the element of regional coordination that has brought under one outfit the embattled Bodo, the militant Gorkha and the hardened Santhal in eastern and northeastern India. Their demand: immediate creation of Bodoland, Gorkha-land and Jharkhand states.

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 Forget the physical impact of the bandh, the political repercussions is bound to affect the eight Bodo districts in Assam, and areas of north Bengal, where Gorkha supremo Subhas Ghising might face a fresh challenge. "In case the BJP leaders think they were 'fixing' Mr Laloo Yadav by conceding only Vananchal, and not disturbing Bengal or Orissa, they'd better think again. Now we're in the same boat as Bihar and UP, with a much smaller area," says a Left Front leader. "Either way, the creation of new states has opened up a Pandora's box; there will be fresh turmoil," say state police officials.

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The initiative to bring three separate autonomy movements under one political grouping came from Urkhao Gwra Brahma, president of the All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU). Having met prime minister A.B. Vajpayee several times over the Bodoland issue, he says he found "the BJP leaders had little patience with the deeply entrenched autonomy aspirations among Bodos, Santhals and Gorkhas." Brahma says Vajpayee never "opposed our demand, but only said his party would decide".

And therein lay the rub: the Assam unit of the BJP has always opposed the demand for Bodoland, just as its West Bengal unit opposes Gorkhaland. Says West Bengal party vice-president Paras Dutt: "We allow autonomous areas keeping in mind the size of the population, the local political factors, the justifiability of the autonomy demand, the prospect for economic viability. Under the circumstances, we do not find the demand for Gorkhaland acceptable. It can only remain a burden, both to the state and the Centre."

The BJP in Assam echoes similar views on Bodoland. It had even opposed the autonomy package worked out by the Congress under Hiteswar Saikia. Besides, state BJP workers harp on the small size of the Bodo population, which is around 30 per cent of the total population in the proposed autonomy area. Says Brahma: "Delhi BJP leaders are influenced by the dominant Ahomiya leadership of the Assam BJP; they have little sympathy for us."

In recent times, the agitation for Gorkha and Bodo autonomy has been characterised by violence that has crippled the local economy. The Bodo agitation, which the 1993 autonomous tribal council did little to assuage, has claimed over 2,000 lives. Ethnic riots have been frequent with tribal extremists slaughtering Hindu and Muslim Bengali immigrants, the Nepalis, the Assamese and Santhals. The Gorkha agitation led by Ghising, for all its fiery rhetoric, hasn't targeted non-Gorkha communities.

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IT'S in this context that the NSYFSS initiative becomes a benchmark. The Bodos have entered into an alliance with those very Gorkhas and Santhals who they had earlier been attacking in parts of Assam. But Brahma believes they can still be friends. "We no longer say that within our proposed 25,000 sq km area in Assam, other communities must clear out. In fact, we support the demand for a separate Bengali Barakland state raised by the Barak valley people. What's wrong with small separate states?" he asks, dismissing the economy question posed by the BJP. In Bodo-inhabited areas, there's virtually no industry and agriculture is primitive. For this, they blame the Assamese administration, just like the Gor-kha politicians blame Calcutta for the lack of development in north Bengal.

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Says Roshan Giri, leader of the All Gorkha Students' Union: "Culturally, the Gorkhas have little in common with the Bengalis. Calcutta doesn't understand the Gorkhas and naturally is not interested in their welfare. Ghising now heads an autonomous council, but the state doesn't cooperate with him. The autonomy has made some leaders happy, but it hasn't solved the problems of Gorkhas, which can be sorted out only in a separate state." As for the Jharkhandis, Bimal Kashyap, president of the All Jharkhand Students' Union, insists that Santhals and other tribes inhabit a resource-rich area comprising 26 districts in four states: "In the name of Vananchal, they shouldn't be given only 18 of these, located only in Bihar."

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As things stand, an insecure BJP at the Centre seems unlikely to give in to the demand for more separate states, although Brahma plans to join up with the Telengana and Vidarbha agitationists soon. BJP leaders are also wary of encouraging fragmentation in areas near the Assam-West Bengal border which are near Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh given reports of close coordination between elements calling for a greater Nepal and Gorkha agitationists. July 28 will merely mark a fresh beginning of unrest, despite the newfound moderation among the Bodo leadership. However, in Bodo-dominated areas, this could herald a temporary truce among communities in conflict.

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