The non-Bodos have called a 36-hour Assam bandh from tomorrow to protest against the signing of the accord between the Government and the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT). ‘‘The accord has been drafted without taking into consideration the genuine fears of non-Bodos, whose population is more than the Bodos, even within the proposed council,’’ says Brajen Mahanta, convenor of the Sanmilita Janagosthiya Sangram Samiti (SJSS), an umbrella group of non-Bodo tribals. Stating 80 per cent of the people have voted against the accord, Mahanta said the bandh would start from 5 pm tomorrow and continue till 5 am on Saturday. ‘‘We would begin the bandh by blowing horns and beating drums,’’ he said. Meanwhile, the media in Assam cautioned that it is now the duty of the Bodo leadership to assure the non-Bodo population living in the proposed Bodoland Territorial Council that their rights would not be usurped even as they hailed the signing of the accord. Most newspapers in Guwahati today carried editorials on the Bodo accord and the one point almost all harped upon is the immediate need to allay fears of non-Bodos that they would be pushed into insecurity. ‘‘The decision to constitute a territorial council has definitely brought relief to the Bodos. The accord also envisages a kind of self-governance for them. It will now be keenly watched how the Bodo leadership tries to assuage the fears of non-Bodos living in areas which will come under the jurisdiction of the new council,’’ said Dainik Asam, the oldest vernacular daily. Dainik Janambhumi, another leading daily, said: ‘‘Rapid economic development is what is immediately needed in the Bodo-dominated areas of the state. The onus is now on the Bodo leaders to prove that the fears of non-Bodos are unfounded.’’
