Intricacies of redrawing BTR map

Renaming of the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) governed by the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) as Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) will revive the political discourse in the Bodo heartland around the third Bodo Accord. However, demarcating the boundaries of the BTR will not be as simple as changing the nomenclature. Euphoria over the new accord evaporated following deferment of the BTC polls due to COVID-19 pandemic. BTAD being an autonomous area under the provisions of the Sixth Schedule, the Governor is empowered to alter its name without a separate legislation. As promised in the third Bodo Accord, a Commission constituted on Friday will examine the appeals for inclusion of new villages and exclusion of villages from BTR and make recommendations accordingly. The BTAD, to be known as BTR henceforth, comprises four districts - Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri and has 3,082 villages. At the time of signing of the second Bodo Accord, the issue of inclusion of 95 more villages in Dhubri, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Nalbari and Darrang districts lacked consensus and remained unsettled. For the purpose of redrawing the BTR boundaries, exclusion of only those villages with less than 50 per cent Scheduled Tribe population will be possible which are contiguous to non-Sixth Schedule areas. There are many villages in the core areas of BTR which have less than 50 per cent ST population and those villages were included in BTAD for the sake of contiguity. These villages will continue to remain within the BTR too. Similarly, for inclusion of new villages with more than 50 per cent ST population, only those villages which are contiguous to BTR will be eligible to apply. The accord signatories, State government, BTC authorities must ensure that there is no ambiguity among the people in BTR on eligibility of villages for seeking inclusion and exclusion. The issue of exclusion or inclusion of villages in BTR is a sensitive issue and mishandling of it has the potential to stoke the embers of distrust among different communities. Ever since the first Bodo Accord signed in 1993 the issue has been dominating the political discourse in the region and also had spill-over impact in other regions. It has also been one of the triggers of series of violent ethnic conflicts that made peace fragile even after signing of three accords with Bodo political groups by the central and the state government. The Sixth Schedule empowers the Governor to include or exclude any area, increase, or decrease the boundaries of autonomous regions after consideration of the report of the Commission. In respect of Assam, the report of every such Commission is to be laid before the Assam Assembly by the Minister concerned together with an explanatory memorandum regarding the action proposed to be taken there on by the State government. In respect of other three states with autonomous councils under the Sixth Schedule- Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura, the report of the commission with recommendations of the Governor are to be laid before the Legislature of the State. Non-inclusion of any representative of the Bodoland People's Front (BPF), a constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led ruling coalition indicates the widening gap between the two allies. The BPF held power in BTC for three consecutive terms and is looking at another term. Deferment of the polls to the territorial council and placing it under the Governor's rule following expiry of the tenure of the elected council have left people in BTC guessing as to what could be the future of the BPF in the state politics. The State government's proposal to include only the representative of the All Bodo Students' Union in the proposed commission for redrawing BTR boundaries. This will be seen as ruling BJP seeking the fulcrum of Bodo politics to be titled in favour of the ABSU-backed United People's Party of Liberal to replace BPF as the main player in Bodo politics. The move to initiate the implementation of key promises of the BTR accord, therefore, is expected to energise UPPL to bolster the oust-BPF campaign. The State government indicating that a decision on BTC polls is likely to be taken in December uncertainty over the council polls is not yet over. There is, however, clear indication that a new political equation in Bodo politics is on the cards. The power politics in BTR and implementation of the accord will also lead to realignment of political equations in the state ahead of 2021 Assembly polls. Consensus and coexistence should be the principle for the people to take part in the exercise of redrawing BTR boundaries. Signatories of the accord have larger responsibility of winning the trust of everyone. Care must be taken to ensure that the process of redrawing the BTR map does not open the old wounds of ethnic conflicts in the territorial region.