Bodoland Movement Organisations staged Mass Gathering in Chirang

Kokrajhar: The Bodoland Movement Organisations, welcomed the decision of bifurcating Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh and forming two UTs, thereof one with Assembly and other without Assembly, it is of course plummeting the status of Jammu & Kashmir state in one hand but making more convenience to both the region on the other in terms of administration & rapid development, they mentioned in a press statement.

The Movement Groups hoped that the unabated violence and conflict will be culminated by this process of major constitutional amendment and historic decision of the Government of India and there will be sustainable peace and equity in development in the valley.

Bodo Movement group also urged upon the Government to take care of the protection of language, identity, culture, political representation and the land of the Indigenous Peoples of the Kashmir valley.

The Movement Group also reminded the all pending demands of the New States/smaller states which were also election commitment of BJP in 2014 to take a policy decision to resolve those issues permanently. It is also a well-known fact that the Party is in favour of the creation of Small States as per its Bhubaneshwar Convention of 1996. It cannot have any excuse for not creating other new States that are demanding separation from the existing once.

The Bodoland Movement Organisations believes that the manner in which the Ministry of Law & Justice has issued the Notification invoking powers under Article 370 (1) of the Constitution, indicates that the Union Government has a political will that surmounts all obstacles to its aim and vision. We call upon the Government to exercise the same political will and urgency in dealing with the other long-pending statehood demand like Bodoland.

It is obvious that the Bhartiya Janta Party has sufficient majority in both the Houses to create new States/Union Territories. The reasons for not creating separate States of the previous government might be due to its procedural requirements of cumbersome which is now not available as has been shown by the Bhartiya Janta Party. However, the present exercise gives an impression to the common man that only if there is terrorism and violence, there is a compulsion to create New States/Union Territories and they are so created. This sends a wrong signal and could encourage violence in parts where small States are being demanded. It was the well-accepted fact that the basis for creating new States/Union Territories had been to help people to live with dignity, to protect their language, identity and culture and also to make their life happier and more fulfilling lives. Therefore, it is the time that Government should initiate the process for the creation of such other States that bring out the better distribution of resources and opportunities and also properly implement of the Article 14^th of the constitution of India. It is the time to provide justice after 72 years of Independence to the people of these regions who have been deprived of many constitutional rights, inequitable governance and development.

"We appeal the Union Government to make policy decision without farther delay to create those new states and make these regions also felt the essence of SABKA SAATH SABKA BIKASH AND SABKA BISWASH by PM Narendra Modi," they mentioned in the press statement.

The Bodoland demand is one of the oldest demands in the country even the Telangana which has formed in 2014. The Bodo movement has experienced a bloody chapter of its movement by losing more than 5000 innocent lives of Bodo people and not less than 20000 Bodo people have been Jailed in the 50 years of Bodoland movement. But the irony of the fact is that despite of having all justification & criteria the demand has not been conceded by the successive Government so far which is not only an injustice but also gross violation of the spirit of the Article 2 & 3 of the constitution of India.

The Bodoland Movement groups urge upon the Government to make a policy decision to resolve the pending Bodoland Issue without delay and it is decided to launch series of democratic movement programmes unless the government resolves this issue with a time-bound effective policy decision.

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