Assam’s Bodoland Liberation Tigers (BLT), currently observing a truce pact with the government, is threatening to go underground once again. After waiting in vain for more than two years for a final settlement of their long-standing demand for a separate administrative unit for the Bodos in Assam, the BLT leadership is finding it difficult to keep its restive flock in check. According to an intelligence feeler sent to New Delhi, many of the armed militants are in a resentful mood.
The negotiations that followed the ceasefire pact got stalled on two major counts: the dispute over boundary demarcation of the proposed new administrative set-up, and the number of seats that would be given to non-Bodos in the local legislature. Says U.G. Brahma, MP and advisor to the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU): “The delay by both the Centre and the Assam government in finalising the terms of the accord is dangerous.” The current impasse has dangerous portents for the insurgency-ridden Northeast. For, Bodoland may be on the boil once again.