Boro Politics on the Brink of Extinction: Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha

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KOKRAJHAR: Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha (BJSM) on Sunday asserted that Bodo politics was heading towards the brink of its extinction as the community had already become voiceless on the floor of the Parliament.

The president of BJSM, Janaklal Basumatary said that with the end of Boro representation in the Rajya Sabha by withdrawing Biswajit Daimary before the Assam Assembly Election in March, it could be rightly apprehended that Boro politics was going to become extinct in national politics. "It is mainly due to personal political ambition, individual power mongering and leadership difference of Boro political leaders. They are thereby easily suppressed by the majority higher society dominant political parties," he said, adding that the Boros were the main tribal groups in the plains of Assam and had been playing significant and important role in Assam politics since the Assam provincial assembly election in 1936 and from the Assam Assembly election in 1952 onwards till today.

Basumatary said that Boro leaders like Amritlal Basumatary, Dharanidhar Basumatary, Urkhao Gwra Brahma and Biswajit Daimary represented the Bodo community in the Rajya Sabha alternately till the withdrawal of Rajya Sabha MP Biswajit Daimary in March, 2021. With this, there will be no representative in both the Houses of the Indian Parliament from the Boro community as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decided to fill up the vacancy of Rajya Sabha seat with former Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, a non-Boro tribal. Before that, Boro tribal politics played an important role in the parliamentary democratic politics of India and Assam, he added.

"The BJP formed government in Assam for the first time in 2016 with the help of the Bodoland People's Front (BPF) till 2021. The Kokrajhar East and West ST reserved assembly constituencies have all along been held by Boro leaders of different political parties successively till today but due the aggressive policy of the State BJP, Boro politics in Assam is now on the brink of extinction. The Boros are going to be deprived of representation in both Houses of Indian Parliament," he said, and adding that this was a plan to suppress the demand for Boroland separate state by the Boro leaders in Parliament.

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