The pro-talk faction of one of the militant groups of the eastern Indian State, Assam which renamed themselves “National Democratic Front of Boroland (Progressive), NDFB(P), has been engaged in a peace process for the last 6 years. The group, which is in dialogue with the Government of India on the issue of a separate state, has strongly criticised and condemned the act of Congress (Indira), which led the the Indian Government to surrender Indian lands that remain in the hands of Bangladesh.
The organisation stated that the Indian Assam State Government and Indian Central Government had shamefully surrendered before the Bangladesh Government in spite of its military might, who have been guarding the national boundary around the clock.
In their press release, the organisation, which had already met and submitted several memorandums to different heads of the government, raising their demand of statehood under Articles 2 & 3 of the Constitution of India, revealed, “We strongly slammed the historic international land boundary agreement between the two nations, India and Bangladesh, where the Indian lands (Boraibari village and the Madanpur TE of Dhubri and Karimgnaj Districts of the Eastern Indian State, Assam, respectively) are given to Bangladesh.”
The Information and Publicity Secretary of NDFB (P) group pointed out, “If the Government of India can cede land to Bangladesh then why can it not concede a separate ‘Boroland State’ to the Boro people within the territory of India that belonged to our forefathers.
The Boro people always wanted to live as a proud Indian Citizens within Indian Sovereignty. Unfortunately the demand of the Boro people is not constitutionally and historically justified by the Government of India. The Government of India never understood the untold miseries and sufferings of the Boro and other Indigenous tribal people of the North East. Is it because the Boro and other Indigenous tribal people of the North eastern region are Mongoloid people and not of Indian origin?”
The organisation further argued, “The Government of India, while in discussions with the NDFB(P) on the issue of the ‘Separate Boroland State’ affirms that there will be no further redrawing of the Map of India, at the same time on the other hand, under the recent international land boundary agreement in Assam State sector in Boroibari in the Dhubri district the boundary is agreed to re-draw from the existing boundary International Border Pillar Number (IBPN)-1066/24-T to IBPN-1067/16-T. Similarly in Madanpur TE area, in the Karimganj district the boundary is agreed to re-draw from the existing boundary IBPN-1370/3-S to IBPN-1371/6-S to follow the outer edge of the tea garden and from boundary IBPN-1372 to IBPN-1373/2-S along the outer edge of the pan plantation.”
“We have seen that the Government of India had always maintained the irresponsible behaviour towards the Boro clan and other indigenous tribal people of North East India and that is a fact that has been known ever since,” lamented the organisation.
“In this context, we therefore demand the Government of India to create Boroland carving out from the state of Assam in order to safeguard the identity of the Boro and other Indigenous tribal people of the region. Unlike the recent land boundary agreement between the two countries we like to appeal to the Government of India to take pragmatic and bold steps to implement Articles 2 & 3 of the Constitution of India with ‘heart and soul,” appealed the militant group to the Government of India.
