NEW DELHI, May 14 � The call for a review of the Bodo Accord has gained momentum, with a fact-finding team while recommending seizure of all illegal weapons, has opposed the State Government�s plan to arm non-Bodos. It has also recommended appointment of a judicial commission to look into the latest episode of violence, its history and causes and ways in which it can be prevented.
The latest to visit the affected areas of BTAD was a fact-finding team deputed by the Centre for Policy Analysis, Delhi, that toured the affected villages and the main camp in Baska on May 10 and 11. The members of the team included Seema Mustafa, Anand Sahay and Satish Jacob, all senior journalists, Anuradha Chenoy, senior academic and political activist, and Harsh Mander, social worker and writer.
The report, released today at the Indian Women Press Corp (IWPC) here this afternoon, more or less confirms what has been widely reported about the latest round of violence that hit the BTAD areas within days of the elections in the area. The report mentions the provocative speeches by a section of the Bodo and non-Bodo leaders, besides the BJP�s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi�s attempt to fish in troubled waters.
The report is critical of handling of the situation by the State Government. It concludes that the attack was clearly planned and while the Tarun Gogoi Government insists that the perpetrators of the violence were from the banned militant outfit National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), the local people who have been hit, deny this. They recognised the killers as surrendered militants who have been employed subsequently by the BTAD forest department, with some of them on duty in the village, and known to every child there.
The 12-point recommendations included suggestions like the need to revisit the Bodo Accord, as it has become a divisive instrument generating violence. The team also called for appointment of a judicial commission to probe what had happened. Among its terms of reference should be to go into repeated occurrence of a familiar pattern of violence and the culture of impunity that has been generated with no one being punished.
